The Miner’s Guide 

A Ready Handbook for 
the Prospector 
and Miner 


Compiled by 

HORACE J. WEST 

340 Wilcox Building 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 


PRICE, ONE DOLLAR 

































The Miner’s Guide 


A Ready Handbook for 
the Prospector 
and Miner 


Compiled by 

HORACE J. WEST 

i* 

340 Wilcox Building 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 


Copyright, 1921 
By Horace J. West 




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MV -3 1922 

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Preface 


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I 


Realizing that there will be great activity in the near 
future in prospecting and in metal mining, because of the 
great rewards in wealth for the individual, and the attract¬ 
ing, for that reason, of intelligent men to mining, I have 
written this little book to aid and advise those who will 
engage in the same. 

Even the veteran prospector for minerals may find that 
this book contains valuable information for him, as the 
author is a veteran prospector and practical miner of thirty- 
five years wide and varied experience. The author hopes 
this book will fill the purpose for which it is written. 
















































































































































































































































































































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Table of Contents 


Page 

The Prospector and His Needs. 7 

Locating a Claim. 14 

Placer Locations . 16 

Testing for Minerals. 18 

Blow Pipe Tests. 26 

Country Rock Rules. 32 

Camp Life and Health. 34 

Working the Claim. 39 

Business of Mining. 41 

Miscellaneous . 46 

Where to Look for Minerals. 54 

Glossary . 56 

Mineral Terms. 75 

Discovery of Gold in California. 77 

Lost Mines of the Desert. 84 


















The Prospector and His Needs 

Well, I remember my first experience in the mining field. 
I practically knew nothing of the business, and it was a 
mystery to me. I would have given quite a sum for just 
such a book as this. Meeting with a veteran prospector, I 
asked him for information in regard to how to discover and 
where to go for minerals. His answer was very simple. 
1 ‘ Go, ’ ’ he said, ‘ ‘ until you find a country that contains many 
different rocks of various hues and colors, then begin look¬ 
ing for minerals. ” In long years of practice I have found 
this to be more or less true. 

The would-be explorer for minerals must first equip him¬ 
self with the necessary transportation to carry him and his 
necessary camp equipment to the mineral bearing zones. 
This transportation will consist of whatever means the in¬ 
dividual may decide upon, a great deal depending upon 
what kind of country you intend to explore, for instance, 
there will be sections that are accessible to automobiles, and 
there will be others only accessible with pack animals, but 
for the best efficiency in going into out of the way places and 
for general usefulness, I recommend the pack animals. If 
your trip takes you into a timbered and grass country 
Horses or Mules are the best, on the contrary, if your trip 
takes you into the great Southwest where the Desert pre¬ 
vails and vegetation is scant and water scarcer, then I 


8 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


recommend the Bnrro or Donkey for your pack animals. 
These animals are hardy, faithful and will pack a burden 
of 125 pounds all day without much effort, live and thrive 
on the Desert vegetation and go for a greater length of time 
on less water than the horse or mule. 

While traveling from district to district, it is easy to make 
25 miles per day with these animals and this is speed enough 
for the prospector, as it gives him an opportunity to observe 
the country as he goes through. There is no greater mistake 
for the prospector for minerals than to get in a hurry. The 
successful prospector and locator of minerals is the person 
with the observant eye and a brain quick to deduct infer¬ 
ences from what that eye has seen, this he cannot do if he 
gets in a rush; many is the time a veteran prospector has 
lost his opportunity by being in too great haste when some 
keen methodical man came behind him and located a 
Bonanza. 

In the event you decide on prospecting in the great South¬ 
west where the Desert abounds, a semi-arid region and water 
holes are few and far between, I would advise for your 
transportation for one man, three burros or donkeys, one to 
use for a saddle animal which you will find very convenient 
to jump on and ride when you get tired of walking. The 
best part of this arrangement is that when you tire of riding 
you can walk and drive your animals ahead of you, and 
when you tire of walking you can ride and drive your pack 
ahead of you. In addition you will require two pack sad¬ 
dles and one light riding saddle, and saddle blankets for 


THE MINER ’S GUIDE 


each animal, two lash ropes for your pack, one for each, a 
pair of hobbles for each animal, a good toned bell and two 
lash chinches for your lash. Ropes, to be used in binding 
the pack on the animals, and this tying on of the pack must 
be done in a thorough manner or you will have trouble dur¬ 
ing the day’s travel which will lead to much torture for your 
animals and possible sore backs for them, and great worry 
and inconvenience for yourself, so lash your packs on thor¬ 
oughly. 

One animal will carry sufficient provisions for you to last 
one month, the other should be equipped with water cans of 
the capacity of twenty gallons, ten gallons to each can to 
balance the pack, which will be sufficient to make what is 
known as a dry camp, or sufficient water to last to the next 
water hole or well, which the individual himself must pre¬ 
pare for by specific knowledge of the section which he 
intends to explore, which he can gain from many sources; 
late maps, information from local residents, and the uni¬ 
versal practice of Counties placing indestructible sign boards 
showing the direction and distance to water holes and wells, 
and different points. 

Your equipment for the trip should practically consist of 
the following—three burros or donkeys, one light riding 
saddle, two pack saddles, two lash ropes, half-inch manilla, 
and two lash chinches, two pieces of heavy canvas to cover 
both packs, one kyack for your provisions which is a double 
receptacle of identical proportions each, that hang on each 
side of the pack animal, and must be evenly matched in 


10 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


weight on each side; this kyack can be made of different 
kinds of material, you can have a pair of canvas bags made 
of the same dimensions, or you can use two coal oil cases, one 
for each side, by boring holes and inserting rope for hangers 
on the pack saddle. I found that coal oil cases were the 
best for the reason you can carry cooked foodstuff with 
greater safety than any other way, and besides it is a much 
cheaper arrangement. 

In addition to this you will need a miner’s gold pan, a 
prospecting pick, a half-gallon mortar and pestle to crush 
rock to the proper fineness for testing the minerals, a miner’s 
horn or metal spoon which can be bought at any good hard¬ 
ware store, for washing or panning the pulverized rock in 
order to separate the minerals from the rock. You will 
need a few simple cooking utensils, such as a frying pan, a 
stew-pot of about one-half gallon, two or three small mixing 
pans for various needs, such as mixing bread; two or three 
tin or graniteware plates, two cups, two knives and forks, 
one butcher knife, two small spoons, two tablespoons, and 
one small coffee pot, a three-quart canteen to provide you 
with drinking water as desired, one miner’s pick and shovel, 
a spring point shovel is the best, and about a three-pound 
pick will be found very satisfactory, a small axe or hatchet 
will come in very handy, a tepee or sibley tent 7x7 feet, hav¬ 
ing a center pole made in two pieces that is cut in two in the 
center which will give you a length of about three feet to 
each piece which can be joined with a socket made of tin 
or galvanized iron. This sectionized pole will be easy to put 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


11 


on your pack and is very convenient. You will need a bed 
and a canvas, six feet wide by fourteen feet long. This 
size canvas will enable you to make your bed on one-half of 
it and pulling the other half over the bed and tucking the 
sides under the bed prevents insects and reptiles from creep¬ 
ing into your bed and also prevents the cold winds of winter 
from getting under your blankets. Your bedding is a 
matter of individual choice, you may be satisfied with one, 
two or three blankets, but my experience has been that a 
standard sized comforter folded in the center makes a very 
good mattress and one good blanket together with your bed 
canvas as described above will be sufficient to make you 
comfortable in any kind of weather; a folding cot is very 
good to pack in the summer but is very cold to use in the 
winter, the closer to the ground one sleeps outdoors in the 
cold weather the warmer he sleeps, in fact in very severe 
cold weather in camping out I have frequently dug shallow 
holes for my bed, which I found to be much warmer than 
making it entirely on the surface. 

In regard to food for the trip, that will be up to the in¬ 
dividual taste. I have found in many years’ camping that 
dried fruits, cereals, potatoes, bacon and ham, sugar, coffee, 
flour, onions, beans and the trimmings that go with them, 
such as pepper, salt, baking powder, etc., are the best for a 
long, hard trip, as the quantity you can carry will go farther 
and last longer than any other kind of food, the cooking of 
which is very simple, anyone can be his own cook and pre¬ 
vent the danger of ptomaine poisoning which one so fre- 


12 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


quently gets from eating canned food; canned milk is about 
the only canned goods I would suggest. 

This completes your equipment for the exploring or pros¬ 
pecting trip. By the addition of another riding animal and 
another three-quart canteen you will have an outfit sufficient 
for two men, and it is advisable for the novice in starting 
out to make up his outfit from some mining camp, for at 
such a place you can always get just what you need and a 
great deal of practical advice, and the suggestion should 
here be made that the novice should induce some congenial 
partner who is experienced to some degree in prospecting 
to accompany him on the trip. This kind of arrangement 
can invariably be made in mining camps, and you will gain 
more valuable information by this method of operation than 
all the books that are written on this subject will teach you 
This book is written more for the purpose of giving advice 
than giving a technical knowledge of geology, mineralogy 
and such things that go with the science of the mining 
industry. 

Without the prospector there would be no mining and the 
world would yet be in the stone age. He is not appreciated 
at anything like his real worth. He requires ability and 
experience, push and perseverance. Prospecting is a search 
for valuable minerals. He may not be very deeply learned 
in either geology or mineralogy, but he must have a keen eye 
and good natural powers of observation, and above all else 
must be an optimist; a pessimist and a successful prospector 
do not go together. 


THE MINEE’S GUIDE 


13 


It is well to remember that one of the principal things that 
makes for success in prospecting is to make money out of 
your locations or finds; if you make a location of mineral 
that you cannot work at a profit yourself, with the limited 
means at a prospector’s disposal, whatever you can sell this 
kind of location for is like finding money on the road; an¬ 
other party with more capital than you may see his way to 
work the claim at a profit and make you an offer to buy, if 
so, sell by all means. Further on will be found the business 
part of mining which you should pay particular attention 
to, as it is just as essential to success as the finding and 
locating of minerals. 


Locating a Claim 

All mineral lands are open to occupation and purchase by 
any citizen, or he who has declared his intentions to become 
a citizen of the United States. 

The locator of a mining claim has the exclusive right of 
possession and enjoyment of all the surface of his claim and 
of all veins, lodes or ledges throughout their entire length, 
the top or apex which lies inside his surface lines extending 
vertically downward. The owner of a mining claim may 
follow his ledge or vein should its dip carry him beyond his 
side lines extended vertically down, so long as he does not 
trespass on the surface of another claim; but in no case can 
he go beyond his end lines, which must in all cases be 
parallel. 

No lode claim can be recorded until a vein or lode has been 
discovered thereon. 

A full lode or vein claim consists of 1500 linear feet along 
the course or strike of the vein or lode and 300 feet on each 
side of the center of the vein or lode; the notice of location 
should be posted within the boundary lines of the claim. 
A good and sure way to locate a claim it to post your notice 
in the center of the claim which will read 750 feet each way. 

The notice of location must contain first, the name of the 
claim; second, the name of the locator or locators; third, 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


15 


the date of the location; fourth, the number of linear feet 
claimed in length along the course or strike of the vein each 
way from the point of discovery, with the width on each side 
of the center of the vein, and the general course or strike 
of the vein or lode as near as may be; fifth, the location and 
description of each corner with the markings thereon. 

Here is an example of locating a vein or lode claim. 
Suppose the strike or course of the vein is north and south 
and you post your notice in the center of the claim, this 
being your discovery point, you will measure off 750 feet 
south to the south end center, where you must build a rock 
monument or set a post at least four feet high from the 
surface on this post or monument. It is advisable to post a 
notice designating what it is, for instance, it should read 

south end center of the . mining claim, from 

this point you measure 300 feet east, setting another post 
or rock monument of the same height, calling post the south¬ 
east corner, thence you measure 1500 feet north, setting 
another post, this being the northeast corner; thence you 
measure 300 feet west setting another post, this being the 
north end center; thence you measure 300 feet west, setting 
another post, this being the northwest corner; thence 
measure 1500 feet south, setting another post, this being the 
southwest corner; thence measure 300 feet east which brings 
you back to the place of beginning, being the south end 
center. It is much more satisfactory and more quickly done 
to set your end centers first and measure 300 feet on each 
side of it, marking your corners as described before, but 



THE MINER’S GUIDE 


16 

your notice of location should describe the boundaries of 
the claim as stated above. 

Every state has different laws regulating mining, not con¬ 
flicting with the United States laws, and it will be well to 
become acquainted with the mining laws of the state you are 
prospecting in. Most states require a discovery shaft, open 
cut, or sufficient work to show mineral in place 10 feet in 
depth from the surface at the lowest rim of the shaft or 
open cut; where the state has no special mining laws of its 
own the United States mining statutes alone prevail. Every 
mining location notice must be recorded in the county 
records of the county it is located in; it must contain a de¬ 
scription so accurate that a person never on the ground 
could take a copy of the notice from the county records and 
go straight to the claim; this is what the records are for, 
and you should be very particular as to describing the 
locality your claim is situated in, describing permanent 
natural objects and well known places, their distance and 
directions from claim. 

PLACER LOCATIONS. 

Every citizen or one who has declared his intentions to 
become one, as stated above, is entitled to locate twenty-acre 
claims of placer ground, which means all other mineral 
claims, except vein, lode or ledge mineral; where the land 
is surveyed you must make your boundary lines conform to 
subdivisions, if not surveyed you can locate it in any angle 
provided you make all corners with the proper post as 
stated above in lode claims. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


17 


By locating what is termed an associated claim, eight 
locators can locate 160 acres in a solid piece of ground, which 
is quite frequently done, giving the advantage of a large 
piece of ground in compact form. This kind of claim must be 
named and corners posted the same as an individual twenty- 
acre claim. 


How To Test For Minerals 

A little general knowledge of the character of rocks will 
prove of great assistance to the prospector. For example, 
he should be able to distinguish between igneous rocks and 
aqueous rocks, as very different classes of mineral are com¬ 
mon to them. Aqueous rocks are water formed, igneous are 
fire-formed. One need never look for coal, for example, in 
volcanic formation. On the other hand, metalliferous veins 
are not to be sought adjacent to coal beds. Certain minerals 
and groups of minerals are associated with certain kinds of 
rock. Gold is most commonly found in quartz, though there 
is scarecly a kind of rock known in which gold is sometimes 
not found. 

The minerals most commonly associated with limestone are 
zinc and lead. In a hornblend formation one may look for 
chrome iron, asbestos, soapstone, gold, silver and copper. 
In shale he may look for coal, fireclay, iron, rock salt and 
gypsum. In granite the precious metals, tin and its allied 
metals molybdenum, etc. 

The volcanic regions offer a field for the gem prospector; 
also the precious metals, sulphur and a variety of other 
minerals. 

Ancient lake beds, or sinks in the hot desert regions are 
the natural depositories of soluble minerals such as borax, 
nitre, soda and the like. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


19 


There are many minerals other than silver, gold, copper, 
tin, lead, iron, coal and the most common and better known 
minerals which are very valuable. A few of these may be 
mentioned: 


Asbestos 

Asphaltum 

Borax 

Bromine 

Chrome 

Cobalt 

Copperas 

Graphite 

Gypsum 

Zirconium Nitrate 


Magnesite 

Manganese 

Ozokerite 

Monazite 

Saltpeter 

Soapstone 

Sodium Nitrate 

Sulphur 

Antimony 

Iridium 


Platinum 

Quicksilver 

Zinc 

Barium 

Beryllium 

Erbium 

Curium 

Lithium Nitrate 
Rhodium 
Thorium Nitrate 


When the prospector wishes to know the name of the 
specimen he holds in his hand, he considers all the following 
properties, crystalline form and structure, clearage, frac¬ 
ture, tenacity, hardness, specific gravity as comparsed with 
water, color and streak, transparency or otherwise, taste, 
odor, chemical composition tested by analysis, character as 
determined by the blow pipe, mode of occurrence and asso¬ 
ciated minerals; crystalline form and structure is too com¬ 
plicated for the average prospector to grasp without a spe¬ 
cial study. 

Cleavage is the line of easiest separation in a mineral, it 
may be perfect, imperfect, interrupted, etc. 

Fracture referring to any surface except that of a cleavage 
may be uneven, conchoidal (shell-like, hackly, rough, etc.). 


20 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Tenacity refers to such qualities as brittle, sectile, mallea¬ 
ble, flexible, or elastic. 

Hardness is represented by the difficulty with which a 
surface is scratched. The scale on general ore was devised 
by Mohs; it is first, talc scratched by the fingernail; second, 
gypsum scratched by fingernail but with more difficulty, will 
not scratch a copper coin; third, calcite, scratched by a cop¬ 
per coin; fourth, Fluorite is not scratched by a copper coin 
and does not scratch glass; fifth, apatite scratches glass but 
with difficulty, is readily scratched by a knife; sixth, Feld¬ 
spar scratches glass with ease, is difficult to scratch with 
knife; seventh, quartz cannot be scratched by a knife and 
readily scratches glass; eighth, topaz, harder; ninth, corun- 
dium, harder; tenth, diamond scratches any other substance. 

Specific gravity: This is the density of mineral and other 
substances compared with that of water. It is particularly 
valuable in determining heavy metals. 

To find the specific gravity of any solid body divide its 
weight in air by the loss of weight in water at a temperature 
as near 60° F. as possible and the quotient will equal the 
specific gravity. 

Lustre: There are seven kinds of lustre, metallic, the 
lustre of metals—Adamantine that of the diamond; vitreous 
or broken glass; resinous of the yellow resines; greasy; 
pearly; silky. There are five degrees of intensity of lustre 
recognized—splendent; shining; glistening; glimmering; 
dull. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


21 


Color and streak: The streak is the color of the powder 
of the mineral when rubbed on unglazed porcelain, or 
scratched with a knife. 

Transparency: Minerals may be transparent, sub-trans¬ 
parent, translucent, sub-translucent, opaque. 

Taste: Minerals may be salty, sweet, bitter, etc. 

Odor: This test is not of much use with most minerals 
until heat is applied. 

Chemical composition: This may always be determined 
by suitable tests with re-agents. 

Pyrognostic characters as a means of readily determining 
the nature of a specimen, the blow pipe is unrivaled, if in 
the hands of one who understands it. 

Mode of occurrence and associated minerals: A knowl¬ 
edge of these matters often assists in a determination. 

Gold is practically the metal most prospectors seek. It is 
very valuable and constitutes so very small a percentage of 
any ore that care must be taken or it may escape detection 
and be lost. 

Panning is the miner’s method. He crushes his ore thor¬ 
oughly and places it in the pan with water; then, with a 
motion easy to learn but hard to describe, he swirls the water 
around, allowing a little of it to escape at each revolution 
carrying with it the lighter material until finally he has a 
little black sand and perhaps a few grains of yellow sub- 


22 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


stance, which is gold. There are many things that look like 
gold to the novice, but gold will beat out thin under the 
hammer just as lead would, while most other substances re¬ 
sembling gold will crush to a powder under the hammer. 
Pure gold is soft and the point of the knife will scratch it 
deeply. Gold may be distinguished from all other metals by 
the three following tests: It is yellow; it may be flattened 
with the hammer; it is not acted upon by nitric acid. 

The veins from which the gold of the world is won do not, 
on the average, hold the precious metal in greater propor¬ 
tions than one part of gold in 70,000 parts of vein matter. 
Under favorable conditions a proportion not one-fifth as rich 
as this may yield a rich return. Copper is a very easy 
mineral to test for. First crush the ore and dissolve it in 
nitric acid by heating, then dilute with some water and add 
ammonia; the solution should turn dark blue. The car¬ 
bonate ores of copper do not extend deep in the mine, their 
places are taken by copper pyrites. Sulphide ores are 
usually difficult to treat and when they are to be tested it is 
better to roast them before trying the test for color. 

Coal: Coal is often more valuable than gold, and the pros¬ 
pector should be prepared to estimate the value of any 
deposit he may come across during his travels. The follow¬ 
ing is a very rough but very effective test for coal: 

Take a clay pipe, pulverize your sample, weight of twenty 
pennyweights, and place it in the bowl of the pipe, make a 
cover with some damp clay. Dry thoroughly and put the 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


23 


bowl upside dawn over a flame. The gas in the coal will 
come out through the stem and may be lit with a match. 
Let the pipe cool after the gas has all escaped, break off the 
cover of the clay, and if the coal was adapted for coke, the 
result will be a lump of that substance in the bowl. Weigh 
this. The difference in weight between the coke and the 
twenty pennyweights of coal that were placed in the bowl 
will represent the combustible matter forced out by the heat. 
Now take this coke and burn it on a porcelain dish over a 
lamp. You will have more or less ash left and the difference 
in weight of the ash and the coke will be the amount of fixed 
carbon in the coal. 

Your test is complete, and it need not have cost you even 
the pipe. Sulphur is a detriment to coal and if you notice 
much of it in the escaping fumes, you may be sure your 
sample is not worth much. 

Mercury Cinnabar. 

The common ore of mercury is a sulphide. Scratch it 
with a knife and the streak will be a bright crimson. Dis¬ 
solve the ore in nitric acid; add a solution of caustic potash, 
and you have a yellow precipitate. Another test is to place 
the ore pulverized in a glass tube with some chloride of lime; 
close the top of the tube and place a smaller one therein, so 
bent that it will pass into a basin of water. Heat the bottom 
of the tube containing the ore and lime, keeping the upper 
part and the small tube cold with a wet rag and you will 
have a deposit of quicksilver in the basin. 


24 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Silver. 

Silver ore may be detected by dissolving a small quantity 
in a test tube with a few drops of Nitric Acid. Boil until 
all red fumes disappear. Let the solution cool; add a little 
water. Filter the whole and add a few drops of Muriatic 
Acid, which will precipitate the white. 

Chloride of Silver. 

Dissolve this precipitate with ammonia; then add nitric 
acid once more. Exposed to the light, the precipitate soon 
shows a violet tint. Pure silver is the brightest of metals, 
of a brilliant white hue with rich lustre. To detect chloride 
of silver in a pulp, rub harshly with a clean, bright and wet 
copper cartridge, or coin, and if there be silver in the pulp, 
the copper will be coated with it. Graphite will also whiten 
copper but the film is easily rubbed off. 

Nickel. 

Nickel may be determined as follows: A little of the 
powdered ore taken up on the point of a pen knife and dis¬ 
solved in a mixture of ten drops of nitric acid and five drops 
of muriatic acid, should be boiled over a lamp for a few 
minutes and ten drops of water added. A small quantity of 
Ferro-cyanide of potash will throw down a whitish-green 
precipitate, indicating nickel. 

Platinum. 

Platinum is a most refractory metal to treat, as it must 
be boiled for at least two hours in a mixture of muriatic acid 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


25 


and nitric acid, known as Aqua Regia. A small amount of 
alcohol is to be added to the solution, and the latter filtered. 
The platinum is precipitated with ammonia chloride. 

Manganese. 

Manganese may be proved as follows: A few grains of 
powdered ore are placed in a test tube with three or four 
drops of sulphuric acid, two or three grains of granulated 
lead or litherage being dropped in. The color will become 
pink should manganese be in the ore. 

A preliminary examination of a mineral may be made with 
a pocket mineral glass and pen knife. With the first, any 
conspicuous constituent may be recognized, while a scratch 
with the point of the pen knife, will give an idea of the 
softness or hardness of the mineral. 

The next test should be with some ore powdered and 
held over a spirit lamp flame. 

A few drops of water and a drop of sulpho-cyanide of 
potash will detect iron, should such metal be present, by a 
deep red color. 

To another portion add one drop of hydrochloric acid and 
a dense curdy precipitate will prove silver, if it contains this 
metal. 

Added to the same original nitric acid solution, a few 
drops of ammonia water would reveal copper by a blue color. 

Antimony, Tin, Aluminum, Zinc, Cobalt and Nickel, 
Uranium and Titanium are best shown by the blow-pipe test. 


26 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


When the prospector wishes to know all the constituents 
of an ore, he must analyze it. Not having a thorough knowl¬ 
edge of chemistry, he should send the sample of ore he 
wishes to know the contents of, to a reliable analytical 
chemist or assayer. 

BLOW-PIPE TESTS. 

As a means of readily detecting the presence of minerals 
in their ores, the Blow-Pipe, in the hands of a skillful opera¬ 
tor, is unrivaled. Nor is this skill hard to come by; one or 
two weeks patient study under a good teacher should teach 
a great deal and subsequently proficiency would come by 
practice in the field. 

The chemical blow-pipe is made of brass or german silver 
with platinum tip. The best fuel, taking everything into 
consideration, is a paraffine candle in cold climate, and a 
stearine candle in hot climate. Tallow may do in an emer¬ 
gency but it requires too much snuffing. 

The blow-pipe can produce two flames; the one known as 
the deducing flame and the oxidizing flame. In the first, the 
substance under examination is heated out of contact with 
the air and parts with its oxygen. In the second, it is heated 
in the air and absorbs oxygen. 

Well burnt pine or willow charcoal in slabs three inches 
by two inches is the material upon which the mineral to be 
tested is placed. A small, shallow depression is scraped out 
of one side of it and the assay placed therein. 

Platinum wire, some three inches long, conveniently fused 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


27 


into a piece of glass tube as a handle, is used to test the 
coloration of mineral in the flame. This should be cleaned 
occasionally in dilute sulphuric acid and then washed in 
water. 

A small pair of forceps with platinum tips serve a great 
variety of purposes, but the beginner must be careful not to 
heat metallic substances in them to a red heat, as he may 
thereby cause an alloy of the metal with the platinum and 
spoil them for future use. 

Glass tubing, one-quarter of an inch in diameter and about 
six inches in length, is used for various purposes. From this 
tubing, what are known as closed tubes, may be made by 
heating one end of the tubing by holding it over a lamp, and 
when it becomes fused, closing the end by means of pressure 
of some kind. The closed tubes are used in heating material 
out of contact with the air. 

A small agate mortar is indispensable. It must be used 
for grinding substances of less hardness than itself to a 
powder, but it will break easily if struck a sharp blow. 

A very small hammer is used to flatten metallic globules 
upon some hard surface, for instance any piece of iron or 
steel. 

A magnet will detect the presence of any magnetic 
mineral, especially if it is reduced to powder and the test 
made under water. 

A good mineral glass you must have. 


28 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


A dozen test tubes of hard glass with stand, in small and 
medium sizes. 

A glass funnel about 2 y 2 inches in diameter is required in 
filtering. The circular filter papers are folded in four and 
placed in the funnel, point down, three thicknesses of the 
paper being on one side of the funnel and one on the other. 

A wash bottle is made from a flask into which a sound 
cork has been placed with holes in it for two pieces of glass 
tubing. One serves as a mouthpiece into which the operator 
blows, while the other, reaching almost to the bottom of the 
bottle and ending in a spout outside of the cork, permits a 
stream of water to be forced out of the bottle when it is 
blown into. 

A few glass rods in short lengths will do for stirrers. 

A little ingenuity is better than much apparatus. 

Of re-agents, the rough and ready prospector can get 
along with the following: Carbonate of soda, borax, micro- 
cosmic salts, cobalt solution, cyanide of potassium, granu¬ 
lated lead, bone ash, test papers of blue litmus and turmeric, 
the former for proving the presence of acid in a solution and 
the latter that of alkali. 

The foregoing are all dry re-agents. The following are 
wet re-agents: Water, clean rain water, melted snow or 
distilled, Hydrochloric Acid, Sulphuric Acid, Nitric Acid, 
Ammonia, Nitrate of Cobalt. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


29 


Heating a mineral with carbonate of soda on charcoal is 
done as follows: The pulverized mineral, mixed with three 
times its bulk of carbonate of soda, is placed in the cavity 
of the charcoal. Tin ore, which is very difficult to reduce, 
should have a small amount of cyanide of potassium placed 
upon it after it has been heated for a few seconds and the 
flame is then reapplied. A globule of metal should then 
result and perhaps an incrustation on the coal. The reaction 
is as follows: Gold, yellow, malleable; silver, white, mallea¬ 
ble; copper, red, malleable; lead, white, malleable; bismuth, 
white, brittle ; antimony, white, brittle, fumes white. 

A small loop is made of platinum wire and it is heated and 
dipped in borax, heated again, then touched while hot to the 
powdered mineral and heated once more. The following 
colors are obtained: 

Iron will be red or yellow, hot, yellow, or colorless, cold. 

Cobalt—Blue, hot or cold. 

Copper—Green, hot; blue, cold. 

Chronium—Green. 

Nickel—Violet, hot; red brown, cold. 

The mineral to be tested is generally powdered and mois¬ 
tened, placed in the cavity of the charcoal and covered or 
not as the circumstances may demand, with a small quantity 
of carbonate of soda. The following results may be ob¬ 
tained: 

Antimony—Place the mineral in the cavity of the charcoal 


30 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


with a pinch of carbonate of soda and blow upon it with the 
inner or oxidizing flame. This is formed by inserting the 
blow-pipe an eighth of an inch into the flame and blowing 
steadily. A white incrustation on the coal and a brittle 
button of antimony should result. 

Lead—Treat the ore in the same way and you will get a 
yellow incrustation on the coal, and a malleable button of 
lead. 

Zinc—Proceed as stated and after blowing for a few sec¬ 
onds, moisten the incrustations with a drop of nitrate of 
cobalt, heat once more but this time use the outer or reduc¬ 
ing flame, produced in this way, keeping the point of the 
blow-pipe a little outside the flame and blowing more gently 
than before, so that the whole flame playing upon the coal 
may be yellow in color. A green incrustation will indicate 
zinc. 

Copper—As usual, mix the ore and soda into a paste and 
fuse it with the oxidizing flame. Dig the mass out of the 
charcoal with the point of a knife and rub it in the mortar 
with water. If there was copper in the ore, red scales will 
be found in the test tube. 

Arsenic—Heat in the inner flame for a second or two and 
if the sample contains arsenic, you will notice an odor of 
garlic. 

Tin—This is a very difficult ore to reduce, but the addition 
of a little cyanide of potassium to the powdered ore will 






THE MINER’S GUIDE 


31 


make it easier. Fuse, after moistening on the charcoal in 
the oxidizing flame and you will get a small button of tin. 

Silver—Make a paste of the ore with carbonate of soda; 
add a small piece of lead and fuse into a button; make a 
paste of bone ash and water and after you have dried it with 
a gentle flame, place the button of silver and lead on the 
bone ash and turn on the oxidizing flame. The lead will 
disappear, leaving a silver button. Should it not be pure 
white, but more or less tinged with yellow, it very likely 
contains gold; and if the button be dissolved in nitric acid, 
whatever remains behind will be gold. 

Bismuth ores are very heavy. Usually they have more or 
less antimony associated with them, which is a detriment, as 
the separation is an expensive affair and the returns are less 
than they would be from a low grade, pure ore. In testing 
this metal, dissolve a crushed sample in nitric acid and then 
add potash in excess. If the ore contains bismuth, you 
should have a white precipitate; if it contains cobalt, you 
should get a bluish, green color. 

Galena is often taken for other ores. If the ore be crushed 
and heated in nitric acid until dissolved, some water added 
and an addition made to the solution of a few drops of ferro- 
cyanide of potassium, a dark red precipitate is the result. 

If Lead ore be dissolved in nitric acid, the solution diluted 
and some hydrochloric acid added, a white precipitate is 
the result. Add ammonia and the precipitate remains un¬ 
changed. 


32 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


The blow-pipe operator has to learn to breathe and blow 
at the same time. The breathing, he does through his nos¬ 
trils; the blowing by the natural tendency of the cheeks to 
collapse when distended with air. 

To identify Cinnabar, the ore from which quicksilver is 
obtained, make a paste of the sample in powdered form and 
carbonate of soda. Heat in the open tube and a globule of 
mercury will result. 

Sulphur turns silver black. Make a paste with carbonate 
of soda, heat on the charcoal, and removing the mass with 
the point of a knife, lay it on a silver coin and moisten, a 
black sulphite of silver should show quickly on the coin, if 
sulphur is present. Magnesia gives a faint pink color when 
heated and treated with nitrate of cobalt on charcoal. 

Alumina under the same treatment gives a blue color. 

Roasting is an oxidizing process, the substance being 
heated in the air, so that it may absorb oxygen. 

COUNTRY ROCK RULES. 

Crystalline rocks are the most favorable for ore deposits 
but contacts of igneous with sedimentary rocks are also 
favorable for rich ores. 

Intrusive Volcanic Rocks, that tip up formations nearly 
vertical, are most frequently associated with well mineral¬ 
ized veins. 

Porphyry Rocks in or adjacent to veins, constitute a fav¬ 
orable condition for rich ores. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


33 


Quartz porphyries are generally associated with extensive 
copper deposits. 

The nearer a vein approaches a vertical position, especially 
above the water level, the more valuable the ore is likely 
to be. 

Ore generally arranges itself into bunches to conform with 
the cleavage and dip of the enclosing wall. 

Ore bodies in a parallel vein generally occur in cross 
zones; ore opposite ore, and barren ground opposite barren 
ground. 

Ore is usually richer in the most narrow and pinched 
places in the vein and lower grade ore in the wider portions. 

Higher grade ore occurs at the intersection of a dyke or 
another vein, with a mineralized vein. 

Enlarged bodies of ore generally occur in a fissure vein 
where is passes from one class of rock to another. 

Gold ores, as a rule, are more valuable in the oxided zone 
and frequently decrease in ton value below the water level. 

Gold ores, with values largely in pyrites, seldom yield 
values after pyrites change to white iron. 

Ore enrichments usually occur when a vein changes in dip 
or strike, but this often gives way to lean ore bodies below 
the point bf enrichment. 

A heavy iron capping or gossen at the vein outcrop, indi¬ 
cates extensive sulphide ore bodies in depth. 


34 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Oxides and carbonates of lead and copper, resulting from 
the decomposition of sulphides of those minerals, never con¬ 
tinue below the natural water level, where they change to 
sulphides. 

Local enrichments of oxides and carbonate minerals result 
from leaching of ore above, whose metallic elements are 
precipitated below. 

Deposits of mercury ore or cinnabar rarely occur in pay¬ 
ing quantities except in porous, serpentine or sandstone 
rocks, which have been faulted by intrusion of igneous rock. 

Intrusions of porphyry or quartz-porphyry when occur¬ 
ring in or near a vein are favorable conditions of valuable 
ore deposits. 

CAMP LIFE AND HEALTH. 

A camp kit of cooking utensils often begins and ends with 
a frying pan, stew pot and small coffee pot. With them, 
all things are possible in preparing all kinds of food. 

All provisions should be kept in canvas bags, matches in 
a leather case or safe, or in a corked bottle or tin can. 

The existence of the prospector being passed in regions 
where the so-called benefits of civilization have not pene¬ 
trated, is generally a happy, hopeful one, especially hope¬ 
ful. I do not ever remember meeting one that was not 
brimful of enthusiasm and hopeful for the future. No doubt 
prospectors who have become pessimistic drop out of the 
ranks. The man who elects to dwell with nature has only 
himself to blame if he does not like his lodgings. He can 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


35 


be comfortable or miserable, according to his knowledge of 
taking advantage of his natural surroundings. 

Whereas the novice starts out with the avowed intention 
of “roughing it”, the veteran camper is particularly careful 
to take things as easy as possible for him, being assured that 
in any case there will be enough trouble unavoidable, to 
satisfy any reasonable craving for roughing it. The pros¬ 
pector learns by experience to look after his own comfort 
and sieze every opportunity to make his life as comfortable 
as possible. 

The three prime wants are food, clothing and shelter. Food 
is very scarce in many parts of the world, and one of the 
great problems in isolated travel is to provide transportation 
for supplies that must be carried from civilization. A cold 
climate will necessitate a large consumption of strong, heat- 
producing food. On the contrary, in warm or tropical 
climates, to eat a light diet of cereals and lean meat and 
plenty of boiled water. 

In the United States, the working man found out long ago 
that pork and beans suit him nicely. It “sticks to the ribs.” 
Meaning, the prospector can walk longer on pork and beans 
than on almost any other food. The man of science, after a 
couple of hundred years or so of investigation, confirms the 
fact by announcing the flesh of a swine mixed with the fruit 
of the bean, contains all the carbo-hydrate, etc., necessary 
to sustain life. The moral of all of this is, that pork and 
beans must not be forgotten when outfitting. A few other 


36 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


things being desirable, the following list may be consulted 
by the prospector or camper: Sugar, evaporated apples, 
salt pork or bacon, pepper, condensed milk, flour, a few 
candles, matches, soap, tea, and beans. 

The favorable style of shelter for the confirmed camper or 
prospector is the dugout. The beauty of the dugout is its 
simplicity. A hole in the side of a bank, a few logs for roof 
and you have a shelter that is almost perfect. 

A veteran miner goes to earth as easily as a rabbit and, 
like the bunny, is never at a loss for habitation. 

If overtaken by a storm in the wilds, do as the wild ani¬ 
mals do under like circumstances; seek the nearest shelter 
and lie close until the storm has abated. The secret is to 
conserve your energy, not to fritter it away fighting a power 
over which you have no control. A shallow, brush lined 
gulch, the lea side of a bank or small clump of trees—these 
and other seemingly slight protections sometimes mean a 
lot of protection for you in case of severe storm. 

A tent should never be pitched loosely, as no matter how 
fine the weather when you pitch it, in a few hours it may 
be temptuous in the extreme and the unpleasantness of hav¬ 
ing a tent come down on one’s head in the dark must be 
experienced to be realized. 

Prospectors, miners and campers as a rule are a healthy, 
hardy lot, but nevertheless they are occasionally taken ill 
and there is seldom a doctor near at hand. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


37 


Should poison have been swallowed, an emetic should be 
given as quickly as possible. Mustard or salt and warm 
water, are very effective, but a dose of sixty grains of ipecac 
is more effectual. While the emetic is acting, the patient 
should drink freely of warm water or milk. 

In case of a wound which bleeds profusely, a distinction 
must be made between blood issuing from a vein and blood 
issuing from an artery. In the first instance, it will be 
nearly black or at least very dark; in the second, it will be 
bright red and spurt forth. When from a vein, bleeding 
must be controlled by pressure below the wound, that is 
father away from the heart, while in the case of an artery, 
which is always more dangerous, immediate pressure must 
be made above the wound on the line of the artery, between 
the wound and the heart. A small pebble rolled up in a 
handkerchief and tied around the limb, with the stone 
directly above the artery and tightened by twisting a stick in 
it, is a good rough and ready means to stop bleeding. Some¬ 
times a pad should be placed between the handkerchief and 
the artery. If you get a burn, anything that excludes air, 
such as wheat flour, olive oil, boiled linseed oil or grated 
raw potato is good to spread over a burn. If any consid¬ 
erable surface is burned, the patient is in great danger, but 
small burns are not fatal, although they may be very painful. 
The best application of all is linseed oil and lime water. 

Scurvy is a disease to be dreaded whenever fresh meat and 
vegetables are scarce. It is now thought to be a condition 
of acid poisoning and the remedy is alkaline salts, such as 


38 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash. Lime juice is 
also an antidote. In cold weather, a diet of almost fresh 
meats will ward off scurvy. 

Pneumonia is usually most fatal in crowded camps, where 
the men do not get a sufficient amount of pure air, so live 
in the open and breathe all the fresh air that nature intended 
you should have. 

The prospector will find it useful to make up a small case 
of medicine. This should contain a box of pills, a box of 
carbolic salve, some court plaster, a package of pure medi¬ 
cated soap of some kind, and some crystals of permanganate 
of potash, to be used in case of rattlesnake bite, as most all 
mining regions are infested with these deadly, poisonous 
reptiles and one is liable to become a victim any time, especi¬ 
ally during the warm months. This permanganate of potash 
should be used in this way—the crystals should be dissolved 
in water and the solution must be injected in and around 
the wound with a hypodermic syringe, immediately after 
being bitten, as delay is dangerous. It is well to have a 
small vial of the solution made up and keep it on your person 
for immediate use. This remedy used in time, is a certain 
antidote for snake poison. 


Working The Claim 

A prospector for minerals is a seeker for wealth. There¬ 
fore as a general rule, he has no funds, except sufficient for 
a grub take. This means, just enough, and sometimes scant, 
to bear his provision bill and his traveling expense. There¬ 
fore he is not able to do extensive work on a mineral claim, 
which always means heavy expense. 

The instructions of the working of a great mine is too 
complex to state here. The beginner must learn this by 
experience. The object of this work is to instruct him in 
the preliminary work. 

First, upon finding a mineral claim, you should determine 
its merits by advice and method of tests previously given. 
Tf it stands the test of a good prospect, you should locate it 
as described above. Diligently explore the surface crop¬ 
pings of the vein and sink your discovery shaft on the most 
favorable place on the vein; that is, the richest ore chute 
you can find. Get on your ore with the work and always 
stay with your ore. Sometimes your ore will dip one way, 
sometimes another, but the prospector, being short of funds, 
cannot afford to go blindly, digging around in hard rock, as 
it is very expensive and his main object is to show his pros¬ 
pect to such an advantage that he can find a purchaser. 

After sinking your discovery or development shaft as far 
down as you can throw the material from the bottom, which 


40 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


is about ten feet, then you will put on a windlass, with rope 
and bucket. The bucket will consist of any receptacle you 
may have on hand, but should not exceed the capacity of 
seventy-five pounds of material, as when you attempt to 
hoist and handle a greater weight than this, it becomes a 
very trying affair. The windlass is not adapted for handling 
material over fifty feet in depth. If the prospector and 
miner desires to go deeper than fifty feet and is short of 
funds, the horse whim is the next most economical and you 
will be able to go as far as two hundred and fifty feet in 
the most economical manner. After this depth you will 
require a power hoist. But very few prospectors attain to 
such depths as stated before. The prospector’s mission is to 
discover the mineral and sell it to advantage to men with 
capital sufficient to develop the mineral prospect to a paying 
basis. 

Farther on I will tell you how to reap the most benefit 
financially out of your prospect, in the chapter entitled * ‘ The 
Business Part of Mining.” 


The Business Part of Mining 

The general public conception of mining is a fake pure 
and simple. This is urged on by most all literature that is 
written on the subject being subsidized by other channels of 
investments, which is a fallacy, because, if minerals and 
metals could not be produced at a profit, our present system 
of civilization would come to a stand-still. We would have 
no gold, no silver, no iron, no steel. You would not even 
have knives, forks and spoons to eat with, nor coal to warm 
you in winter. 

The prospector’s mission is to discover and by his efforts 
to bring into production for the benefit of the general public, 
the essential minerals and metals that our complex civiliza¬ 
tion demands, and he is entitled to a reward commensurate 
with this service to the welfare of the general public, and I 
will herewith give some hints for his benefit. 

The Author of this book was known all over the Pacific 
Coast as a successful prospector, for the reason that he could 
pay his way and never ask help. The reason of this was the 
policy or business part of mining from the prospector’s point 
of view, looked at with a practical view-point. 

First, if you find a mineral prospect, even if it looks good, 
and you cannot make it pay with the financial resources at 
your command, whatever price you can sell it for, to a possi- 


42 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


ble purchaser on the road, while the prospect may turn out • 
millions in value, it would do you no good without the 
proper capital to finance it to a paying basis and there is 
no use to fritter your life away, wailing for someone to come 
along and give you a tremendous sum of money for a mere 
prospect, where it is not developed to the extent of a mine, 
because the investor, as a general rule, is a cold blooded 
proposition. There are too many folks with gold, silver and 
mineral claims for sale, but those you can sell at a specula¬ 
tive value, the investor is taking a chance of loss where your 
claim is not developed to the extent of a mine, and it is to 
your interest to at least divide the chance with him. 

The greatest chance of loss is not in buying the mine, but 
in future development work and equipment, which the in¬ 
vestor has to take on a mere prospect of mineral, so play fair. 
One good way is to retain a small non-assessable interest and 
let the capital bear the expense. If the prospect makes 
good, you will no doubt make more money out of it than if 
you sold for a nominal sum of cash, but if this arrangement 
cannot be made when a bona fide deal comes up, the advice 
is to sell anyway, when your claim is not developed into 
a mine. 

The superficial prospector for minerals seldom meets with 
success. It is the deliberate, patient, delving, analytical 
prospector who plucks the plums. Running about is not 
prospecting. Prospecting is getting down to the root of 
things and seeking diligently for his fortune. 

Another mistake to which the prospector is liable is self 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


43 


deception. He wants to find rich deposits of mineral. When 
he does find a lode or placer containing mineral, he is quite 
apt to let his desire influence his estimate of the value there¬ 
in. However much satisfaction this may afford him at the 
time, it only leads to future loss and disappointment. He 
should be very judicial and Impartial in forming his conclu¬ 
sions on the values. 

Another great mistake more frequently made is the at¬ 
tempting to locate too many claims. The average pros¬ 
pector is a poor speculator. The prospector must remember 
that to hold a claim or make his location valid, he must 
operate it and improve it; if it is not a good claim it is not 
worth the work that is required to hold it under the Mining 
Laws of the United States and the Federal Statutes. If it 
is a good claim, he better put in his time developing it rather 
than to put in his time locating other claims, especially 
where the law requires you to do discovery work. 

One other mistake may be referred to here, and that is 
carelessness in making his locations and proofs. If a claim 
proves to be a particularly valuable one, there are plenty 
of unscrupulous persons who are ready to take advantage 
of any slip, oversight or technical negligence on the part of 
the discoverer, and who may file contesting claims and 
attempt to deprive him of the property. Even if they should 
not succeed in their efforts, it is expensive and unpleasant 
to have to litigate over a claim. Great care should be taken 
in marking out a claim, setting substantial posts or monu¬ 
ments, posting all required notices in a proper manner and 


44 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


fulfilling every demand of the law, in order to have no 
grounds for litigation. 

It is advisable for the prospector before locating a claim 
to inform himself of the law, which he can do by purchas¬ 
ing some Book on Mining Laws, which are authority on this 
line of work. 

Many mistaken notions prevail in regards to mining in 
general and ore deposits in particular, and it will no doubt 
prove of interest, if not profit, to refer to some of them. 
They may be grouped into two classes. Mistakes due to 
ignorance and inexperience and mistakes due to experience 
with bad judgment. Mistakes due to ignorance and inex¬ 
perience are to be expected, but they may be prevented by 
mining knowledge and practical mining experience, so it 
may not be amiss to notice the most prominent. 

Many hard-headed business men, who have succeeded in 
commercial lines, assume they can be equally successful in 
mining without any knowledge whatever of the science of 
mining. Others regard mining as a mere chance, but the 
mission of this book will have failed if any reader falls into 
such fatal errors. An equally grievous error of the un¬ 
learned and inexperienced is to disregard all geological 
formation and adopt the slogan that “Gold is where you 
find it,” and to assume that you are apt to find a gold mine 
in digging a well or driving a water tunnel as anywhere else. 

A common saying amongst the inexperienced is that one 
man can see as deep into the ground as another; in other 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


45 


words, that the novice in mining knows as much what is 
below, as the Mining Engineer. So far as the physical eye 
is concerned, one man’s sight may be as good as another, 
but the scientific eye can penetrate solid rocks and often see 
more than the untrained eye can see after a shaft has been 
sunk. 

Many who are ignorant of vein formation and the prin¬ 
cipal underlying ore deposits, jump at the conclusion that a 
mining claim adjoining a rich mine will prove equally valua¬ 
ble. Such a thing does now and then happen, but it will not 
do to act on such a supposition. 

It must not be thought that experience will always guard 
against errors. Experience is a good teacher but many fail 
to learn with the best of teachers and go on making the same 
mistakes over and over again. However, wisdom and ex¬ 
perience amalgamated make a safe guide and will prevent 
the errors which are all too common in mining operations. 

A common error is for a miner to judge every mining dis¬ 
trict by his experience in a particular field and it frequently 
happens that a prospector removing to a new country utterly 
fails because he expects to find rock formation and ore de¬ 
posits like those of the district he has left. 

The practical mining man should be conservative. Form 
opinions he must, as all will who use their reasoning powers, 
but definite conclusions and fixed opinions should not be 
formed except on strong evidence and corroborative proofs. 


Miscellaneous 

Miner’s Inch. 

A Miner’s inch of water varies in different states and is 
therefore not a fixed quantity. In some states it means the 
quantity of water that will flow through an orifice one inch 
square on the bottom side of a box under a pressure of four 
inches. Under these conditions a miner’s inch will dis¬ 
charge 2,259 cubic feet, or 17,648 gallons every twenty-four 
hours, which is at the rate of twelve gallons a minute. 

In calculating the amount of water required by a stamp 
mill it is usual to allow 74 gallons for each stamp, 120 gallons 
for every pan, 75 gallons for every settler, 120 gallons for 
each concentrator, 350 gallons for a jig and 8 gallons for 
every horsepower each hour. 

Lumber in a Log. 

Multiply the diameter in inches at the small end by one 
half the number of inches; again multiply this product by 
the length of the log in feet. This product divided by 
twelve will give the number of feet of one-inch boards the 
log will make. 


Horse Power of Boilers. 

For horizontal, tubular and flue boilers, divide the number 
of feet of heating surface by 15. This will give the horse 
power. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


47 


Horse Power of an Engine. 

Multiply the area of the cylinder in square inches by the 
average effective pressure in pounds to the square inch, de¬ 
ducting 3 pounds to the square inch for friction. Multiply 
this remainder by the speed of the piston in feet per minute 
and divide by 33.000, the quotient will be the true horse 
power. 


Horse Power of Pelton Wheel. 

The Pelton wheel is in high favor with California miners 
when the head water is known in feet. Multiply by 0.0024147 
and the product is the horse power that one miner’s inch of 
water will give. 


A Cheap Testing Outfit. 

Sometimes the pioneer is forced to attempt a good many 
investigations with very simple apparatus. Should he pos¬ 
sess the following, he can achieve much. A spirit lamp, 
candle, blow-pipe, magnet, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, 
quart glass jar, three test tubes with corks, two feet of glass 
tubing, copper wire, two square inches of tin plate, forceps 
and test papers. Such an outfit will not cost very much. 

Weight of Sand, Earth, Gravel, Etc. 

A ton of pit sand averages 23 cubic feet. 

21 cubic feet makes a ton of earth. 

19 cubic feet makes a ton of coarse gravel. 

18 cubic feet makes a ton of clay. 

A ton of chalk will average 14 cubic feet. 


48 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Weights of Ores and Rocks. 

Quartz will average 162 pounds to the cubic foot. 
Silver Glance—455 pounds. 

Ruby Silver—362. 

Brittle Silver—386. 

Horn Silver—345. 

Antimony Glance—287. 

Cinnabar—549. 

Copper Pyrites—262. 

Gray Copper—280. 

Galena—461. 

Zinc Blend—249. 

Iron Pyrites—312. 

Limestone—174. 

Clay—162. 


Hydraulic Data. 

An imperial gallon of water weighs ten pounds. 

Gallons multiplied by 1606 equals cubic feet. 

Cubic feet multiplied by 6.288 equals gallons. 

Gallons multiplied by 277.46 equals inches. 

Cubic inches multiplied by 0.004464 equals tons. 

Tons multiplied by 224 equals gallons. 

Tons multiplied by 35.97 equals cubic feet. 

To Calculate Weight of Ores. 

Measure the contents of the mass. Multiply this by the 
weight of one cubic foot of the mineral as stated previously. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


49 


Weights and Measures. 

Troy Weight—24 grains, one pennyweight. 
20 pennyweights—one ounce. 

12 ounces—one pound. 

Long Measure. 

12 inches—one foot. 

3 feet—one yard. 

2 yards—one fathom. 

16i/ 2 feet—one rod. 

4 rods—one chain. 

10 chains—one furlong. 

8 furlongs—one mile. 

Square Measure. 

9 square feet—one square yard. 

30% square yards—one square rod. 

4 square rods—one square acre. 

640 square acres—one square mile. 

Land Measure. 

7.92 inches—one link. 

25 links—one rod. 

4 rods—one chain. 

80 chains—one mile. 

Avoirdupois Weight. 

16 drachms—one ounce. 

16 ounces—one pound. 

25 pounds—one quarter. 

4 quarters—one hundred weight. 

20 hundred weight—one ton. 


50 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Apothecary’s Weight. 

20 grains—one scruple. 

3 scruples—one dram. 

8 drams—one ounce. 

12 ounces—one pound. 

Mining Regulations. 

The Mining Regulations of every country differ and the 
prospector must learn by heart provisions of the one he 
works under. 

Pocket Hunting. 

This term is derived from a class of prospectors who 
specialize in prospecting for pockets of gold and they are 
called Pocket Hunters. 

After the placer fields of northern California were stripped 
of the richest values in channels and bars, and were too lean 
for the miner to work on a small scale, this condition im¬ 
pelled the miners to look for the source of the placer gold. 
Consequently, in many favorable fields, they found pockets 
of gold, some with only a few hundred dollars and some 
with a fortune in them. Many failed to find any pocket and 
soon dropped out of the ranks of this class of prospectors. 
As usual, the efficient and observing prospector made more 
or less of a success in this line of hunting for pockets, be¬ 
cause he had studied the method of prospecting for pockets 
of gold so thoroughly that it became an exact science with 
him, and once let him get on the trail of a color of gold and 
he would trace it to its source. Just like you would follow 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


51 


the hoof prints of a horse on the ground until you came to 
the horse, only he used the miner’s pan, pick and shovel. 
Sometimes, after digging, panning and tracing for days and 
sometimes weeks, he would come to the end of the trail only 
to find that the pocket he had been tracing had been entirely 
eroded and scattered through the soil and gravel. 

Then again at the end of the trail he might uncover a 
partially eroded pocket and obtain good pay for his per¬ 
sistent work and again if he was what they called lucky he 
would uncover a pocket just exposed to disintegration suf¬ 
ficient to throw out the trace. When he was fortunate 
enough to make this kind of discovery, it was generally 
sufficient for him to retire from his arduous work. 

The method of prospecting for pockets is like this: Seek 
your gold placer field, and determine if the source of the 
gold therein is local; that is, has it come from the higher 
ground immediately adjoining. 

This can be determined in this way. If the particles of 
gold you obtain in your pan are rough and not worn smooth 
and there is no foreign drift material in the gravel, that is, 
there will be appreciable quantity of material in the gravel 
that cannot be duplicated in the surrounding formation, then 
you can be certain the placer gold has a local origin. 

After you determine this, it is natural you should wish to 
find the source from whence this gold came. 

The method in tracing this source is like this. Select a 
gulch or creek you know carries gold. Begin panning as 


52 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


far up as you surmise the gold values extend. Continue 
panning until you are unable to obtain a color of gold. Then 
try each side of the rising ground until you obtain color of 
gold. Once on the trail, continue panning in every direc¬ 
tion until you cease to obtain color. 

Then begin to dig and look for the pocket or source of the 
gold. This method is the most exact way to determine the 
source of any local placer gold. It requires persistent, 
patient work to be taken up day after day at the point where 
you left off the day before, but the reward may be great. 
In any event, it is worth the trouble and work. If you are 
successful in locating a rich deposit of gold, your financial 
troubles are over, temporarily at least, and if you fail, try 
another point and go through the same method of tracing, 
never forgetting that persistence, work and intelligence 
will win. 


Dynamite. 

Dynamite should be stored in a magazine which must be 
dry, cool and well ventilated. Bricks are best, but when 
built of wood, the frame should be covered inside and out 
with boards, allowing the air to have free circulation be¬ 
tween the walls, so that the inner wall may not be heated by 
the sun. 

Do not store your caps with the dynamite. 

If powder was well made, it is as good a dozen years after¬ 
wards as it was the day it came from the factory. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


53 


Most accidents occur in thawing dynamite. Dynamite 
freezes betveen 40 and 45 degrees F. That is ten degrees 
above the freezing point of water, and although it does not 
explode, jf heated slowly, until 320 degrees F. is reached, 
yet the qick application of dry heat may explode it at 120 
degrees F This makes it dangerous, for a stick of powder 
hot enough to explode under certain conditions may be held 
in the Dnd with little inconvenience. Powder should be 
thawed Jy placing it in water tight vessels and the vessel 
set in lit water. It should never be placed on or under a 
stove (i in an oven or on a boiler wall to thaw out, as is so 
often bne by the unthinking. Frozen dynamite is especi¬ 
ally lifcde to explode from heat quickly applied. 

Frozen powder is unfit for use. It will burn or smoulder 
and icme of it may be left in the drill hole to explode when 
it is 3 ) t wanted to. 


Where To Go To Explore For Minerals 

The question, where to go to explore, depends lately upon 
the prospector. If he be a general seeker aftel mineral 
wealth, and is prepared by education and equipment to rec¬ 
ognize the various minerals, stones and gems and dtermine 
their value, then the world is his field, for there ire few 
areas of great extent which do not contain valuable mineral 
of some kind. If he has but two or three minerals ii view, 
or is qualified to judge of a limited number, then \e best 
seek those regions known to contain those minerals. \ 

There are certain strips of country known to contai cer¬ 
tain minerals, to which the term belt has been applied. 'Thus 
we have our Gold Belts, Silver Belts, Copper Belts,Coal 
Belts and Oil Belts. There are belts or areas in ihicli 
precious and semi-precious gems are found and certain ther 
treasures of the earth are so located as to come withiithe 
definition of Mineral Belts. While discoveries of mkls, 
minerals and gems are frequently made in entirely lew 
fields, it is in the prospecting of the territory withinjhe 
known districts or belts that the prospector’s best chales 
for success lie. 

A little general knowledge of the character of rocks \\l 
prove of great value to the prospector. For example, e 
should be able to distinguish between Igneous Rocks afi 



THE MINER’S GUIDE 


55 


Aqueous Rocks, as very different classes of minerals are com¬ 
mon to each. Aqueous rocks are water formed, igneous are 
fire formed. One need never look for coal, for example, in 
igneous or volcanic rocks. On the other hand, metaliferous 
veins are not to be sought in Aqueous formations. 

Certain minerals and groups of minerals are associated 
with certain kinds of rock. Gold is most commonly found in 
quartz, though there is scarcely a kind of rock known in 
which gold is not sometimes found. 

The minerals most commonly associated with lime stone 
are zinc and lead. In a hornblend formation one may ex¬ 
pect chrome iron, asbestos, soapstone, gold, silver and cop¬ 
per. In shale he may look for fire clay, coal, rock salt and 
gypsum. 

In granite, the precious metals mostly occur such as tin 
and its allied metals, molybdinum, gold, silver, etc. 

The volcanic regions offer a field for the gem prospector, 
also the precious metals, sulphur and a variety of minerals. 

Ancient lake beds in the hot and barren desert regions are 
the natural depositories of soluble minerals such as nitre, 
borax, soda and the like. 


Glossary 

While there are not many technical terms used in this 
book, it is well for the prospector and miner to familiarize 
himself with the technical terms of mining and minerals, so 
we herewith print a list of definitions. 

ABRASIVES. 

Minerals or rock substances used in grinding, abrasing 
and polishing. 

ACANTHITE. 

A silver sulphide, containing 87 per cent silver. 

AGATE. 

A variegated chalcedony used as a gem, and in mechanical 
lines for meter and scale bearings, phonograph needles, 
dental tools, mortars and pestles and for ornaments. 

ALABASTER. 

Compact, fine grained gypsum, white or delicately shaded. 
ALBITE. 

Soda feldspar, a silicate of aluminum and sodium. 
ALMANDITE. 

A common garnet used very abundantly as an abrasive. 
ALUMINUM. 

A metallic element not found native, valuable for its light 
weight, universally used in all arts. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


57 


AMALGAM. 

A native compound of gold, silver and mercury. 

AMBER. 

Fossil resin, used in pharmacy, the arts and as a gem. 
AMETHYST. 

A purple or bluish violet quartz used as a gem. 
ANGLESITE. 

Lead sulphate—contains 68 per cent lead. 

ANTHRACITE. 

A hard coal, a hard, black, lustrous coal containing 85 to 
95 per cent carbon as against 70 to 85 per cent in bituminous 
or soft coal. 

ANTIMONY. 

An element sometimes found native. Used in babbit and 
other bearing metals, type metal, white metal and several 
other uses. 

ARGENTITE. 

Silver glance, a silver sulphide. Contains 87 per cent silver. 
ASBESTOS. 

A fibrous variety of amphibole. In commerce it includes 
also fibrous serpentine (chrysotile). The properties of 
asbestos, such as its non-combustibility, non-conductivity of 
heat and electricity and its fibrous structure, make it one 
of the most useful minerals for many structural purposes. 


58 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


AZURITE. 

Blue copper carbonate. Contains 46 per cent copper. 
Sometimes used as a gem; also used as a pigment. 

BARITE. 

Heavy spar, barium sulphate. Used principally as a pig¬ 
ment in mixed paints. 

BASALT. 

A dense to glossy, dark colored basic, volcanic rock, com¬ 
posed essentially of soda-lime, feldspar and pyroxene. 

BAUXITE. 

Hydrated alumnia. The chief uses of bauxite are as a 
raw material in the production of aluminum salts and in the 
manufacture of the metal aluminum. 

BIOTITE. 

A black or brown mica. 

BISMUTH. 

An element found as a native metal. The metal is used 
as a component part of cliche or low melting point metals 
and in solder. 

BITUMEN. 

A general name for various solid and semi-solid hydro¬ 
carbons. 

BLOOD STONE. 

A variety of chalsedony or jasper. Dark green in color, 
interspersed with small red spots. 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


59 


BORAX. 

Sodium tetraborate. Used in many trades; for enameling 
ironware, such asbath tubs, sinks and crockery, pottery and 
tile. Extensively ised in industrial chemistry, medicine and 
household. As ai\ antiseptic, for preserving food, in the 
manufacture of baking powder, flavoring extracts, soap, 
starch and glue. 

BREA. 

Semi-solid natural asphalt. Used as a flux, as a roofing 
material and in permanent construction. 

CALAYERITE. 

A telluride of gold and silver, variable in composition but 
contains about 39.5 per cent in gold and 3.1 per cent in silver. 

CASSITERITE. 

Tin oxide. The mineral from which all tin is obtained. 
HORN SILVER. 

Silver chloride; 75 per cpnt silver. 

CHALCOCITE. 

Copper glance. A copper sulphide. Contains 79.8 per 
cent copper. 

CINNABAR, 

A vermilion mercury sulphide; 86 per cent mercury. It 
is the common ore of mercury or quicksilver. 

COBALT. 

A metallic element not found native. Used in coloring 
glass and ceramic wares blue. 


60 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


COLEMANITE. 

A hydrous borate of calcium. The principal source of 
borax and boracic acid in the United Stares. 

COPPER. 

Sometimes found as native metal. Yidely used in the 
different industries, chiefly for electric transmitters, in brass 
manufacture, in copper castings, such as in those for ma¬ 
chinery and for household utensils. Has been used for coins 
since the earliest times. 

CUPRITE. 

Native red copper oxide. Contains 88.8 per cent copper. 
DIABASE. 

A basic igneous rock, usually occurring in dykes or intru¬ 
sive sheets and composed essentially of plagioclase feldspar 
and augite, with small quantities of magnetite and apatite. 

DIAMOND. 

A very hard native crystallized form of carbon. When 
pure and clear, it is used for a gem. 

DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. 

An earthy substance or soft rock composed of the silceous 
skeletons of small aquatic plants called Diatoms, used chiefly 
in the manufacture of filters, abrasives and polishing 
powders. A polishing material for precious metal ware; an 
absorbent of liquid materials and for insulation. Used also 
for fire-proofing. It is placed on the market as a loose 
powder and also as cut or molded bricks. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


61 


DIORITE. 

A granulated rock composed essentially of hornblend and 
feldspar, which is mostly or wholly plagioclase, with acces¬ 
sory biotite, and augite or nugite along. Minute grains of 
magnatite and titanite may be visible. Quartz may be 
present in considerable amount, in which case the rock is 
called Quartz Diorite. 

DOLOMITE. 

A carbonate of calcium magnesium or a rock composed 
mainly of that mineral with a natural or artificial admixture 
of clay. It is burned to form Rosendale Hydraulic Cement, 
for which purpose it should be low in iron and sulphur. It 
is used for many of the same purposes as ordinary limestone, 
burned and unburned. Dolomite is also used as a source of 
carbonic acid, for which purpose it is, if anything, more 
valuable than ordinary limestone. Large quantities are 
used as building stone. 

ELECTRUM. 

A natural alloy of gold and silver containing approxi¬ 
mately 40 per cent of silver. 

EMERALD. 

A rich, green variety of beryl. Used as a gem. 
EPIDOTE. 

A basic or thosilicate of calcium, aluminum and iron. 
More or less conspicuous in several granites and related 
rocks, where it is a principal constituent of Unakite. It is 
used as a gem. 


62 


THE MINER ’S GUIDE 


GALENA. 

A lead sulphide. Contains 86.6 per cent lead. Is the 
principal lead ore mineral. 

GNEISS. 

A banded, metamorphic rock with a more or less developed 
cleavage, but without the fissility of schist. Used for the 
same purpose as granite. 

GOLD. 

Generally found as a native metal. Used in coinage (a 
Standard of Value), jewelry, the arts, drugs and in chemical 
and physical researches. 

GRANITE. 

A granular igneous rock, composed essentially of quartz, 
feldspar and mica. 

GRANITE PORPHYRY. 

A rock intermediate between granite and rhyolite or 
quartz porphyry, having the same mineral as granite but a 
porphyritic texture like quartz porphyry. Used for founda¬ 
tions and building stone. 

GRAPHITE. 

Plumbago, black lead. A soft, steel-gray to black, more 
or less impure, native form of carbon. The principal use 
is in making crucibles and other refractory products for the 
steel, brass, bronze and electro-chemical industries. Sub¬ 
sidiary uses are in the manufacture of stove polish, foundry 
facings, lead pencils, paint for metallic surfaces. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


63 


GUANO. 

The earthy, hardened excreta of birds and bats in caves, 
sheltering rocks and other roosting places. Valuable as 
fertilizer for its phosphoric acid, ammonia and potash. 

GYPSUM. 

Hydrous calcium sulphate. Contains 32.5 per cent lime, 
46.6 per cent sulphur trioxide, 20.9 per cent water. Alabas¬ 
ter is a fine grained compact variety. White, shaded or 
tinted. 

Gypsum is an incoherent mass of very small gypsum crys¬ 
tals or particles and has a soft, earthy appearance. Con¬ 
tains various impurities, generally silica and clay. Satin 
spar is a fine fibrous variety, which has a pearly, opalescent 
appearance. 

Selenite is a variety which occurs in distinct crystals or 
of broad folia. 

Hock gypsum, the most common form and the principal 
source of gypsum, is a finely crystalline, white or pink to 
black deposit, occurring interbedded with other strata. 

Used crude as an ingredient for Portland cement manu¬ 
facture and land plaster. Used calcined for plaster of paris, 
wall plaster, for molding and casting, Keen’s Cement, dental 
plaster and in bedding glass for polishing. While massive, 
gypsum or alabaster is used by sculptors for interior orna¬ 
mentation, and it is carved into vases and other objects 
of art. 


64 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


HEMATITE. 

Gray iron ore, red iron ore, specular iron, oxide of iron. 
Contains 70 per cent iron. Is an important source of iron; 
is used also in the manufacture of cheap paints, as polishing 
powder and in a crushed form for ornamental work. 

HUBNERITE. 

Nearly pure manganese tungstate. When pure it contains 
76.6 per cent tungsten trioxide. A source of tungsten, fer- 
rostungsten and sodium tungstate. 

IRON. 

Rarely found native. By far the most common and most 
useful of all the metals. It occurs in abundance in nature 
in many forms (very rarely as the metal), being an impor¬ 
tant constituent of almost all rocks. 

JADE. 

A hard and extremely tough mineral of varying composi¬ 
tion. Greenish white to deep green in color. Used in mak¬ 
ing carved ornaments and as a gem. 

JASPER. 

Red, brown, yellow, green. Impure slightly translucent, 
crypto crystatlline quartz with a dull fracture. Used as a 
gem and ornamental stone. 

JET. 

A dense, black lignite, taking good polish. Sometimes 
used for jewelry. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


65 


KAOLIN. 

A clay, mainly hydrous aluminum silicate, from which 
porcelain, china, stoneware, fire brick, fancy tile and other 
products may be made. 

LAVA. 

A volcanic rock that has reached the surface of the earth 
while molten. 

LEAD. 

A metallic element rarely found native. Commercial lead 
is extremely pure. Used in most every line. 

LIGNITE. 

A brownish, black coal in which the alterations of vege¬ 
table material has proceeded farther than peat but not so 
far as in sub-bituminous coal. 

LIMESTONE. 

A rock composed mainly of calcium carbonate. Used for 
an infinite variety of purposes. 

LITHOGRAPHIC STONE. 

A fine grained homogeneous limestone, suitable for etch¬ 
ing. Used for engraving in lithography. 

MAGNESITE. 

Magnesium carbonate. Used chiefly in the manufacture 
of wood-pulp for paper by the sulphite process. In the 
manufacture of oxy-chloride or sorel cement, magnesite ce¬ 
ment or plaster, which is used for sanitary flooring, artificial 


66 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


marble, tiles and as plastic or stucco for exterior finish. Used 
also in making carbon dioxide, refractory bricks and fire 
proof and damp proof paints and in the rubber industry. 
MAGNESIUM. 

A silver white metallic element used in the manufacture 
of shrapnel shells to produce light and smoke and in making 
copper castings, to prevent blow-holes by decomposing the 
gases found in the melting of the copper. It is now derived 
as a by-product from magnesium chloride. 

MAGNETITE. 

Magnetic iron ore. The magnetic iron oxide. Contains 
72.4 per cent iron, the richest and purest ore of iron. Used 
largely for the production of the commercial metal and to 
some extent as a flux in lead and copper smelting. 
MALACHITE. 

Green basic copper carbonates. Contains 40.3 per cent 
copper. A source of copper and used also for inlay in orna¬ 
mental work and sometimes as a gem. Used as a pigment 
in imitation bronze. 

MANGANESE. 

A metallic element. Occurs abundantly in nature. Chiefly 
as oxides. The chief uses of manganese may be classed as 
metallurgic in the manufacture of alloys and as fluxes in the 
reduction of copper, lead and silver ores and chemical, as an 
oxidizer and as a coloring material. 

MARBLE. 

Crystalline, granular limestone or Dolomite, generally sus¬ 
ceptible of a high polish. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


67 


The Verde Antique marbles consist mostly of serpentine. 
Used as monumental, statuary, ornamental and building 
stone in exterior and interior work. 

MERCURY OR QUICKSILVER. 

Sometimes found native but mostly derived from the ore 
cinnabar, normally. By far the greatest part of the world’s 
production of mercury is used in extracting gold and silver 
from their ores. 

MICA. 

A hydrous silicate of aluminum and an alkali as potas¬ 
sium, sodium or lithium, having a very fine basal cleavage 
which renders it capable of being split into thin, tough, 
transparent plates. The most common varieties are musco¬ 
vite and biotite. Used in trade for stove windows, gas lamp 
chimneys, lamp shades and spectacles and as an insulating 
material in the manuacture of almost all kinds of electric 
machinery and apparatus. 

MILLERITE. 

Nickel sulphide contains 64.1 per cent nickel. 
MOLYBDENUM. 

A metallic element of wide but not abundant distribution. 
Used extensively in the manufacture of very hard steels and 
many other lines of manufacturing. 

MUSCOVITE. 

Potash bearing white mica. 


68 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


NICKEL. 

A metallic element chiefly used in making nickel steel. 
Great quantities of nickel are used in plating various metal¬ 
lic objects and smaller quantities, also used in making 
coins. 

NITRE OR SALTPETER. 

Potassium nitrate. Used in manufacturing nitric acid, 
gunpowder and other explosives, as a fertilizer and in curing 
meats. 

OBSIDIAN. 

Volcanic glass, extrusive igneous rocks which have cooled 
either without crystallization or with only partial crystalli¬ 
zation. Used as a gem. 

OCHRE. 

Mineral paint. A metallic oxide occurring in an earthly 
or pulverulent form. Commercially the term ochre is used 
to mean the yellow, red and brown earthy iron oxides. 

ORTHOCLASE. 

The monoclinic potash feldspar. Contains a maximum of 
16.9 per cent of potash. Sometimes used as a gem. 

PEGMATITE. 

Giant granite. An igneous rock, generally coarse grained 
but usually irregular in texture and composition. Composed 
mainly of silicate minerals of large size, including quartz, 
feldspar, muscovite, biotite, tourmaline, beryl, lithia min- 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


69 


erals, etc. Some pegmatites carry minerals containing the 
rare earth metals, tin, tungsten, uranium and others. 

PETZITE. 

Telluride of silver and gold. The gold contents range 
from 18.2 to 25.6 per cent and the silver from 40.7 to 46.8 
per cent. 

PHOSPHATE ROCK. 

A sedimentary rock containing phosphate of lime. The 
form in which the phosphate of lime occurs is obscure. Used 
in the manufacture of artificial fertilizer and chemicals con¬ 
taining phosphoric acid. 

PLATINUM. 

An element occurring as a native metal. Practically all 
platinum is found in the metallic state. 

POLYBASITE. 

Sulphide of silver. An antimony. If pure, it would con¬ 
tain 75.6 per cent silver but copper replaces part of the sil¬ 
ver; also arsenic replaces antimony. 

PORPHYRY. 

An igneous rock in which relatively large, conspicuous 
crystals are set in a finer grained or glassy ground mass. 

Porphyries are generally named in accordance with their 
rock composition (for example, granite porphyry). The 
word porphyry is used by miners to mean almost any kind 
of igneous rocks, particularly one that is spotted, soft or 
light colored. 


70 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


POTASH. 

The oxide of potassium. The potash of commerce is de¬ 
rived from the minerals carmolite, kainite, sylvite and nitre, 
and also from certain sea weeds, wood ashes and marls. The 
principal potash bearing silicate minerals are orthoclase, 
leucite, sanidine and muscovite. 

PUMICE. 

Highly vesicular or cellular, glassy lava or volcanic dust 
or ash, generally rhyolitic in composition. Used for abra¬ 
sive work, chiefly for wood polishing and in the preparation 
of tooth powder and certain cleansing and scouring com¬ 
pounds. 

PYRITE. 

Iron pyrites crystallized, disulphide. Contains 46.6 per 
cent iron and 53.4 per cent sulphur. Used chiefly in mak¬ 
ing sulphuric acid. It is very widely distributed as a gangue 
mineral in ore deposits. 

QUARTZ. 

Silica, crystallized silicon, dioxide. 

QUARTZITE. 

A sandstone in which the grains are so cemented by silica 
that they break across when the rock is fractured. 

RADIUM. 

A metallic element derived through a series of inter¬ 
mediate elements from uranium. Radium is never found in 
sufficient quantities to be visible but occurs only with 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


71 


uranium minerals in extremely minute quantities amounting 
at most to 3 or 4 grains to the ton of material. From these 
it is separated to obtain the radium salts of commerce. 

RHYOLITE. 

A highly siliceous compact or porphyritic, variously col¬ 
ored volcanic rock. The extrusive equivalent of granite. 

ROSE QUARTZ. 

Crystalline quartz with a rose pink color. Used as a gem 
or as an ornamental stone. 

SALT. 

Common salt, sodium chloride. 

SANDSTONE. 

Consolidated sand generally in beds. 

SAPPHIRE. 

Clear, blue corundum. A well known blue gem. There 
are also white, pink and yellow sapphires. 

SITEELITE. 

Calcium tungstate contains 80.6 per cent tungsten trioxide. 
SCHIST. 

A thinly laminated or foliated metamorphic rock, gen¬ 
erally containing a large amount of mica. 

SERPENTINE. 

Hydrous magnesium silicate or a rock composed mostly of 
that mineral. Used for building and ornamental work. 


72 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


SHALE. 

A fine grained rock formed by the consolidation of silt or 
clay and fissile along bedding planes. 

SIDERITE. 

Spathic iron ore, iron carbonate. Contains 48.2 per cent 
iron. An important ore of iron. 

SILVER. 

An element sometimes found native. Metallic silver is 
extensively used in the arts and for coinage. 

SLATE. 

A dense, fine textured metamorphic rock whose separate 
minerals are indistinguishable to the unaided eye and which 
has an excellent parallel cleavage, so that it breaks into thin 
plates or pencil like shapes. Used extensively for a variety 
of purposes. 

SODA. 

A white alkaline compound, sodium carbonate. 

SODIUM. 

An element, the metallic constituent or basis of common 
salt, a soft, white, plastic metal which is slightly lighter than 
water but is widely distributed in rock-forming silicates and 
the chloride, common salt, which is the chief source of the 
metal and its salts. 

STIBNITE. 

Antimony glance, gray antimony, sulphuret of antimony, 
antimony sulphide. Contains 71.4 per cent antimony. The 
principal ore mineral and chief source of the metal antimony. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


73 


SULPHUR. 

An element frequently found native. Sulphur takes fire 
at a low temperature and for this reason it is extensively 
used as a means of producing fire in friction, matches, pow¬ 
der and fireworks. It is used also for making sulphuric acid 
and in many commercial lines. 

SYENITE. 

A granular igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feld¬ 
spar with a subordinate amount of the black ferromagnesian 
silicate minerals hornblend, biotite and augite, one or more 
of which may be present. 

SYLVANITE. 

A gold silver telluride containing gold and silver in the 
ration of gold 24.5 per cent and 13.4 per cent silver. 

TALC. 

A hydrous magnesium silicate. Has a greasy or soapy 
feel and is soft and easily cut. 

TIN. 

A white, malleable metallic element found in nature prob¬ 
ably only in combination principally as tin oxide, casseterite. 

TRAP ROCK. 

A general name for dark, fine grained igneous rocks, par¬ 
ticularly lavas or dykes of basalt, diabase and similar rocks. 

TUNGSTEN. 

A metallic element not found native. Its melting point is 
the highest of the metals. It is insoluble in ordinary acids 


74 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


and when in the form of fine wire, its tensile strength ex¬ 
ceeds that of iron or nickel. The great use of tungsten is 
as a component of the highly complex alloy steels known as 
high speed steel. 

TURQUOISE. 

Hydrous phosphate of aluminum and copper. A well 
known gem. 

URANIUM. 

A heavy, metallic element not found native. All uranium 
minerals contain radium. 

ZINC. 

An element not found native, in metallic form, cast in 
slabs, is known as spelter. Extensively used for various 
purposes. 


Mineral Terms 


ADAMANTINE. Having diamond lustre. 

ADIT. A horizontal tunnel from the surface draining a 
mine. 

AMALGAMATION. Combining mercury or quicksilver 
with another metal. 

ALLUVIUM. Deposits of streams. 

ANALYSIS. A chemical research whereby the nature and 
amount of the component parts of a substance are 
found out. 

ARGENTIFEROUS. Silver bearing. 

ARGILLACEOUS. Clay bearing. 

ASSAY. A test. 

AURIFEROUS. Gold bearing. 

BASE METALS. Those not classed as precious. 
BATTERY. A set of stamps for crushing ore. 

BED ROCK. Solid rock below porous material. 

CEMENT. Compacted gravel. 

COLOR. A speck of gold. 

COUNTRY ROCK. The rock enclosing a vein. 

CRADLE. A mining apparatus; also called a rocker. 
CUPRIFEROUS. Copper bearing. 

DIP. The inclination of a vein at right angles to its length. 


76 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


DRIFT. A horizontal opening in a mine or the rubbish left 
by disintegration. 

DRIFTING. Driving a tunnel. 

FAULT. A break in a vein or bed. 

FLOAT. Vein stone or ore by which a vein is traced. 
FLUX. Material added to help fusion. 

FOLIATED. In thin layers. 

GANGUE. Vein material. 

GOUGE. A selvage of clay between clay and country rock. 
IRIDESCENT. Showing the hues of the rainbow. 
LITHARGE. Proto oxide in lead. 

OPEN CUT. A surface working. 

OUTCROP. That part of a vein showing on the surface. 
OXIDATION. A chemical union with oxygen. 

OXIDE. A chemical union of metal with oxygen. 

PANNING. Washing gravel or crushed rock in a gold 
miner’s pan to detect gold, etc. 

PLACER. A deposit of valuable metals in gravel. 
PLUMBAGO. Graphite or black lead. 

PRECIPITATE. Matter separated from a solution. 

PULP. Pulverized ore. 

SHAFT. A pit giving access to a vein or working. 
TAILINGS. The waste matter after ore has been crushed. 
TRANSLUCENT. If light passes through a mineral it is 
translucent. 

UNSTRATIFIED. Without stratification or bedding. 
WINZE. An interior shaft connecting the levels. 


Discovery Of California Gold 

The existence of rich and extensive gold mines in Cali¬ 
fornia was discovered by James W. Marshall, an American 
citizen and a native of New Jersey, on the nineteenth of Jan¬ 
uary, 1848. Gold had, previous to that time, been found, but 
in places where the mines were not extensive; their produc¬ 
tion was scarcely known to commerce, and their working, 
after long years, led to no important results. Marshall’s 
discovery speedily and directly exercised an influence that 
was felt throughout the world, and gave a new life to trade 
and industry in Europe and America. 

MINING BECOMES A BUSINESS. 

Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic mind, and 
he at once attached great importance to his discovery. His 
ideas, however, were vague; he knew nothing about gold 
mining; he did not know how to take advantage of what he 
had found. Only an experienced gold miner could under¬ 
stand the importance of the discovery, and make it of prac¬ 
tical value to all the world. That gold miner, forunately, 
was near at hand; his name was Isaac Humphrey. He was 
residing in the town of San Francisco, in the month of Feb¬ 
ruary, when a Mr. Bennett, one of the party employed at 
Marshall’s mill, went down to that place with some of the 
dust to have it tested; for it was still a matter of doubt 
whether this yellow metal really was gold. Bennett told his 


78 


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errand to a friend whom he met in San Francisco, and this 
friend introduced him to Humphrey, who had been a gold 
miner in Georgia, and was therefore competent to pass an 
opinion upon the stuff. Humphrey looked at the dust, pro¬ 
nounced it gold at the first glance, and expressed a belief 
that the diggings must be rich. He made inquiries about 
the place where the gold was found, and subsequent in¬ 
quiries about the trustworthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on the 
seventh of March he was at the mill. He tried to induce 
several of his friends in San Francisco to go with him; they 
all thought his expedition a foolish one, and he had to go 
alone. He found that there was some talk about the gold, 
and persons would occasionally go about looking for pieces 
of it; but no one was engaged in mining, and the work of the 
mill was going on as usual. On the eighth he went out pros¬ 
pecting with a pan, and satisfied himself that the country in 
that vicinity was rich in gold. He then made a rocker and 
commenced the business of washing gold, and thus began 
the business of mining in California. Others saw how he 
did it, followed his example, found that the work was profit¬ 
able, and abandoned all other occupations. The news of 
their success spread, people fiocked to the place, learned how 
to use the rocker, discovered new diggings, and in the course 
of a few months, the country had been overturned by a 
social and industrial revolution. 

RUSH TO THE MINES 

The news spread, men came from all the settled parts of 
the territory, and as they came they went to work mining, 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


79 


and gradually they moved further and further from Coloma, 
and before the rainy season had commenced (in December) 
miners were washing rich auriferous dirt all along the 
western slope of the Sierra Nevada, from the Feather to the 
Tuolumne River, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, 
and also over a space of about fifteen miles square, near the 
place now known as the town of Shasta, in the Coast Moun¬ 
tains, at the head of the Sacramento Valley. The whole 
country had been turned topsy-turvy; towns had been de¬ 
serted, or left only to the women and children; fields had 
been left unreaped; herds of cattle went without any one to 
care for them. But gold mining, which had become the 
great interest of the country, was not neglected. The peo¬ 
ple learned rapidly and worked hard. In the latter part of 
1848, adventurers began to arrive from Oregon, the Sand¬ 
wich Islands and Mexico. The winter found the miners 
with very little preparation, but most of them were accus¬ 
tomed to a rough mode of life in the western wilds, and they 
considered their large profits an abundant compensation for 
their privations and hardships. The weather was so mild 
in December and January that they could work almost as 
well as in the Summer, and the rain gave them facilities for 
washing such as they could not have in the dry season. 

“It is often asked if mining, on the whole, is a profitable 
industry. It may be replied that it is not only profitable, 
but largely so, provided caution and judgment be exercised 
in selecting the mines, and due integrity, skill and economy 
displayed in their management. If, however, these condi¬ 
tions be not fulfilled, the most disastrous consequences may 


80 


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be anticipated; since worthless undertakings will in this case 
be supported by the public, and after subscribers have paid 
extravagant premiums for indifferent properties, the capital 
necessary to develop them will either be squandered or in¬ 
judiciously spent. * * * A capitalist wishing to become 

associated with a company prosecuting a mining enterprise, 
should first inquire into the character of the district in which 
the mine is situated; secondly, the honesty and ability of 
the person reporting on it; and thirdly, ascertain if the 
shareholders generally are in a position to meet the demands 
which a vigorous trial would be likely to impose on them. 
The constitution of the undertaking should also be investi¬ 
gated. Free shares are generally objectionable, and the 
system of giving a large sum of money for an untried prop¬ 
erty is highly pernicious; since in addition to its effects upon 
the ultimate profits of the concern, it encourages misstate¬ 
ments, and tends to support a class of unscrupulous specula¬ 
tors, through whose agency this branch of industry has been 
chiefly brought into disrepute. 

“All mineral explorations should be conducted as rapidly 
as possible, for the purpose of lessening the aggregate 
amount of dead charges, and a practical, intelligent and 
honest man should be entrusted with the direction of the 
works. It is by no means essential that such a person should 
possess an elaborate education; but his ideas relative to the 
exigencies of his profession should be clear and well defined, 
and he ought, moreover, to be familiar with the use of the 
dial and with all the various operations of dressing and pre- 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


81 


paring the ores for the market. Grave mistakes are fre¬ 
quently committed by entrusting the local management of 
mineral undertakings to men who possess but a superficial 
acquaintance with the subject, and who sink large sums of 
money in the multiplicity of their schemes for economizing 
expenditure. Such persons often make extensive surface 
erections before proceeding to the development of the under¬ 
ground works, and from mere love of display absorb an 
undue proportion of the capital, forgetting that their ar¬ 
rangements can only be valuable in proportion as the mine 
itself becomes productive. Hence the undertaking becomes 
prematurely embarrassed, and is sometimes obliged, from 
this very cause alone, to terminate its existence. 

“The radical principle to be observed by the capitalist, 
when about to invest money in profitable or established 
mines, is to distribute his means over a considerable number 
of them; since to adventure in any single concern is, with 
the best advice, a matter of considerable risk. Moreover, it 
is not judicious to confine investments to one district or to 
one class of mines alone; but to select the richest localities, 
and according to their importance, give the best mines they 
contain a pro rata proportion of capital. It should also be 
borne in mind, that certain adventures are so worked as to 
afford regular periodical dividends, while others only yield 
returns at irregular intervals. These two classes of prop¬ 
erties do not necessarily imply that different systems are 
pursued in their mangement. Permanent dividend mines 
are often more advanced in their explorations than those 


82 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


which yield irregular profits; and although the percentage 
of returns is steadier in the former, yet the probability of 
improvement in the market value may be considered greater 
in the latter; thus allowing capitalists to realize a profit in 
one case which could not be obtained in the other.*’ 


Preface To Appendix 

The Author of the Miner’s Guide has for many years 
searched for precious metals, etc., and during this search for 
wealth, sometimes with pack animals as a means of transpor¬ 
tation, sometimes with the luxury of a team and wagon to 
haul conveniences never dreamed of with pack animals and 
personal packs. He has traveled into most mining districts 
of the Pacific Coast and the desert districts in particular 
and during this thirty years of experience lived among the 
Indians and met miners and prospectors from every district 
on the desert. He thus had an opportunity to obtain infor¬ 
mation of value by keeping notes of what he heard. In this 
way he heard of “Lost Mines.” He personally knew many 
of the characters mentioned in these stories and traditions 
and he spent many months of hardship looking for some of 
these lost mines but has never been fortunate enough to 
discover any of them. These stories are printed here for the 
reason that they are interesting to any person contemplating 
entering the mining field because it gives him an insight into 
the difficulties the prospector encounters in his search for 
wealth. Most of these stories on lost mines have a founda¬ 
tion o f truth but the author cannot vouch for the greater 
part of the traditions. 


The Lost Mines of the Desert 


A crowd stood gaping into the wide window of a Spring 
Street store in the metropolitan city of Los Angeles. It was 
an awed crowd, that continued of large proportion through¬ 
out the day. Toilers from the factories intermingled with 
men from the offices, while society women, stepping from 
their limousine cars, edged through the ranks of the working 
girls who were also numerous in that always-changing 
crowd. 

The lure of gold drew them there, rich and poor alike. It 
was the actual metal, the real yellow wealth in its various 
forms: quartz rock that exuded it from every pore, the 
nugget worn smooth on the rock bed of a stream, and the 
dust. It was dramatically displayed, not from a mirrored 
surface as though in a jeweler’s cabinet, or from out the 
folds of rich velvet, but in its native element, lying amid 
rocks and sand. 

It was depicted as a desert scene, weird in every detail, 
created by the hand of a master in topographical work and 
staged just within the heavy plate glass. The sands were 
molded into dunes and mounds across a long, flat plain and 
led into a mountain range which formed the background. 
And on this miniature desert waste were strewn equally 
miniature marks of the luckless adventurer who had 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


85 


threaded the waste in search of wealth. His bones, with 
those of the pack mules, lay bleached beside the rusting tires 
of a wagon-wheel, telling a gruesome tale of lost hope and 
lost life. 

And back among the mountain canyons were manikin men 
who toiled at the building of roads, at cutting away ledges 
of pure gold, at sinking shafts and erecting smelters. It was 
all real, so real that men and women seemed semi-hypnotized, 
and many of them succumbed to the honeyed words of the 
glib talker who invited them within the doors of the place 
for further examination of the newly discovered bonanza. 

He was attired in the stage version of a typical prospector, 
wearing high leather boots, corduroy pants buckled within 
their tops, blue flannel shirt, red tie and topped with a wide 
sombrero. His chief duty lay in the distribution of highly 
illuminative literature on the rediscovery of one of the 
world’s greatest mines, the famous Esperanza de Guanarre 
of southwestern Arizona near the border of Mexico, and ex¬ 
tending the invitation to the flies that were caught in the 
web of curiosity to come into the parlor of the spider who 
peddled mining stock. Once within, the smooth talker, full 
of statistics and some facts relating to mining and particu¬ 
larly to the fabulously wealthy Annuncion property in 
southwestern Mexico, unfolded a tale of hardships and ad¬ 
venture. 

He told of the wealthiest mine on the American continent, 
lost more than a century ago after having paid its thieving, 


86 


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narrow-minded and illiterate Spanish renegade owner mil¬ 
lions and millions—so many that the taxes which he con¬ 
tributed to the Spanish Government and the missions 
amounted to nineteen millions in a period of only a few 
years. 

“And think, my dear sir, think of it, this was but a per 
cent of the total which the man garnered from the immense 
hidden vein of pure metal which until several months ago 
lay idle only to be discovered by old John Milligan!” said 
this “con” artist. 

And if the visitor was at all interested at this point in the 
narrative, an old miner, deeply wrinkled, poorly clothed, but 
enthusiastic in the extreme, was called from an obscure 
corner and introduced as the discoverer of this pot of wealth. 
In quavering voice he told of his years of toil; dramatically 
he depicted his sufferings for want of water, for lack of food. 

Almost invariably this brought the matter of stock to the 
foreground, revealed the fact that all that was necessary to 
bring this immense wealth to the mint at San Francisco was 
a railroad to the mines. Money for this was essential, and 
because of a desire to give many, instead of a few capitalists, 
the opportunity of adding still greater burdens of dollars 
to their already large packs, the general public was given 
this opportunity to subscribe for a few shares. 

So perfect was the staging of this financial bubble, so 
harmoniously conducted were all the details, that within 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


87 


three weeks the four men who controlled the combine had 
managed to clear, up something like seventy-five thousand 
dollars on stock that sold for twenty-five cents the share. 
Only the fact that they used the mails led to the sudden 
termination of operations. The Federal authorities had 
been making an investigation and had found total lack of 
property to be one of the chief reasons why the swindlers 
should not be taking-in a gullible public. Three of the four 
get-rich-quick artists were landed behind bars, while a 
fourth, having had an inkling of what was coming, managed 
to get away with a good portion of the public contribution. 

The trial revealed that stock purchasers were of all classes 
—not confined to the ignorant, to the middle class or to the 
rich. The phantom of quick returns on little investment, 
the roseate dreams of opulence without work, and the idea 
of having a share in a famous lost property with a history 
had landed its suckers by the score and the hundreds. And 
this was but one of hundreds of similar swindles that have 
been perpetrated in the past or are being carried on right 
at the present time and finding new “marks” to trim. 

Usually the story of the lost mine is the bait used to land 
the fish. There have been dozens of these properties, and 
from time to time old tales are renewed by a sudden strike. 
Right at this moment there is an old miner in San Bernar¬ 
dino, California, who claims that he has discovered the very 
mine referred to above, and he is sincere in his belief of loca¬ 
tion. There are countless miners who have deluded them- 


88 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


selves into the same ideas, and some of them have actually 
discovered what have been lost mines. 

These will-o’-the-wisps have beckoned many men from 
their homes, have sent them into hopeless regions where 
starvation and despair have been their only reward. They 
have proved to be the rocks on which the miners have been 
wrecked, the beacons that have gone out, and the evanescent 
mirages that have lured onward to fatal endings. 

On the other hand, they have been the means of bringing 
about many other valuable discoveries of mineral wealth. 
They have led the phantom-chaser to other riches than the 
pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

The lost mine finds its way into the home of the elite occa¬ 
sionally, into the columns of the papers periodically and is 
always on hand to help while away the nocturnal watches 
around the camp-fire of the prospector. In the clubs and 
the bar-rooms of the Western cities where mining men con¬ 
gregate, where they mingle with men of social and political 
power, with adventurers from the South Seas, soldiers from 
the Philippines, traders from the Orient, the lost mine is 
always one of the most interesting topics. Among these are 
some that have been classed almost among the fables of the 
ancients, but, despite that, have their foundations deeply 
rooted in fact. 

“THE LOST ARCH” DIGGINGS 

Somewhere in the northern portion of the Turtle Range 
of mountains, a range east and south of the range designated 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


89 


as the Old Woman’s Mountain on the Colorado River in 
California, lies the Lost Arch, twice located and twice lost 
by the peculiar working of Providence. 

Jim Fish and his partner, a prospector who arrived in the 
days of the first gold rush to California, were traveling 
from Nevada to California in the year 1883, in an old-fash¬ 
ioned buekboard behind a team of stringy bay horses. They 
had apparently filled their barrel of water at the Colorado 
and continued on their slow search for hidden wealth. 

For months they had been prospecting through the little- 
known country, stopping here and there, climbing hills and 
following streams through unknown ranges. Occasionally 
they secured sufficient game to supply them with meat. Once 
or twice they met with friendly Indians and bartered for 
dry corn and beans which were grown on the high and 
almost inaccesible mesas of that part of the country. 

And then came the event which startled them. They had 
traveled two days from the Colorado when Fish happened 
to investigate more closely the water-supply. He had turned 
the barrel up and found that little fluid was forthcoming. 
Almost frantically he pulled out the bung. He rolled the 
barrel around to the opening and carefully placed beneath 
it a bucket. Less than two canteen measures remained. 

The situation was not entirely new to a veteran in the 
mountains, but he at once realized the dilemma that con¬ 
fronted him. He waited for his partner, whose name is said 
to have been Crocker, though this fact has never been estab- 


90 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


lished, and when he came in from his trip to the adjacent 
hills he imparted his bad news. 

Some vegetation showed on the range near at hand and it 
was decided to risk a day in search for the precious fluid in 
the gulches and canyons of the mountains. 

“It’s our best chance,” said Fish to Crocker after the 
two had talked over the matter for hours into the night. 

So early in the morning, after four or five hours of rest, 
they started resolutely to the hills. 

“Crocker went up one canyon while I took another, the 
one to right,” remarked Fish, in the months that came after 
when he recounted the story to friends in San Bernardino, 
California. 

“The main canyon deployed into a gulch on the right and 
I decided to follow this through the hot sun and down among 
the rocks so far that not a breath of air seemed to pass 
through the cleft. On and on I went, over stones larger 
than a house, around smooth and slippery boulders where 
water had certainly been at one time, but where then not 
a trace showed. 

“My feet were lagging, my shins were barked and aching, 
for in the rush I had neglected to be careful. Turning a 
sudden corner in the gulch, I came upon a natural bridge 
that spanned the canyon. It was so odd, so regular in the 
outline of an arch that I could only stand and admire it. 
Beneath its shade, the most cooling place in that hell-hole, 
I found a large sandy area and there sank down to rest. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


91 


“ While idly scratching the sand, which seemed coarse and 
heavy, its peculiarity attracted my closer attention. I got 
down on my knees and started to blow the dust away, and 
there before me I had a great pocket of precious metal, gold 
that averaged the size of wheat grains. I filled several 
pockets with the heavy grains and, with all thought of thirst 
forgotten, hurried excitedly down the canyon to impart the 
news of the find to Crocker.’’ 

Arriving at the wagon, Fish was forced to wait several 
hours before his partner arrived, and in that time his brain 
had a chance to cool. Crocker added to the coolness when 
he came back despairing, for he also had failed in finding 
water. The gold stirred little excitement in his mind. It 
was a case of water, and the nearest lay in the Colorado, two 
days back. 

Gold dropped its mask of friendliness when the two pros¬ 
pectors started back in fevered haste and with perturbed 
thoughts as to the outcome. Their canteen of water had to 
do for two animals and two men, any of them having a thirst 
at the time that would have made short work of a single 
canteen of water. 

This was doled out by the spoonful. The horses were not 
given a drink, their mouths being merely rubbed out with a 
damp cloth. They passed mile after mile of the weird sand- 
dunes that seemed to chase each other in serpentine waves, 
gray-brown, grotesque and awful dunes that fashioned forms 
of ghostly nothingness on nearer approach. 


92 


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The blistering sun burned through their thick flannel 
shirts; it seared the very marrow in their bones. When the 
fading folds of light finally gave way to the pall of darkness 
and the cold they were in torment. Their water was all 
gone and they had still a day before them. Far into the 
night, with its intense blue sky, its occasional stars, they 
plodded. 

And then they staggered to a rest. Their physical beings 
refused further to answer their demands and their horses 
could scarcely drag on. So they rested. 

Before morning light had thrown its rays across the desert 
they were up again. Today it was worse than the day be¬ 
fore. They had lost their sense of direction. The sand 
seemed to engulf their feet, to reach up and clutch their legs 
in an endeavor to hold them. They stopped trying to drive 
the horses, but allowed the poor animals to stumble on ahead 
and followed in their tracks. 

When hope had just expired and everything seemed gone 
—the chance for wealth, the hoard of gold within the moun¬ 
tains and, what was more, life itself, they saw, away off. the 
fringe of willows. They were too tired to rush on. Instead, 
they both lay down and rested. 

And when they finally did reach it they did not drink, but 
dropped into the cold, swiftly moving water at the bank and 
saturated every pore of their skins with the life-giving fluid. 
For Crocker the water had come too late. His vitality had 
been sapped, his nerve was gone and his system depleted of 
every particle of life. Nothing that Fish could do for him 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


93 


would bring him back to health, and instead of returning 
directly to the mountains of the arch, Fish was forced to go 
on to Ehrenberg, where Crocker was given medical atten¬ 
tion, but despite this he died within the week of reaching 
there. 

It was weeks before Fish recovered from the shock, and 
three months before he started out by himself to relocate 
his treasure. He thought it lay in the Old Woman’s Moun¬ 
tain range, not strange because of the similarity of it and the 
Turtle Range. He failed the first, second and third times 
and many other times, until he finally gave up his fruitless 
task, having expended the small fortune of a life’s making 
without finding his one great treasure. 

This was not the end of the arch, however. A German 
prospector, whose name was thought to have been Peter 
Kohler, came back to corroborate the fact of the arch in the 
Turtle Range. It was in 1900 that he had been prospecting 
through the country. One day, after having climbed over 
a ridge, he gradually worked his way down the northern 
side and landed on a little mesa just above a peculiar arch. 
He had been a naturalist in his native land, and its strange¬ 
ness made him forget all thought of gold. 

He had been successful in finding several valuable claims 
and was going back to some settlement to find a prospector 
who would be willing to help in the first development of the 
properties he expeted to obtain. Getting out of the moun- 


94 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


tains, he struck across the desert to Needles, and on the way 
there he fell in with a prospector by the name of John 
Packer. 

On their first night together, with the novelty of human 
companionship after weeks of solitude, Kohler told many 
things, among them the story of the arch. He himself had 
never had an inkling of the wonderful deposit of gold that 
lay beneath its span. The story of Fish had not reached his 
ears and he had overlooked the opportunity of a lifetime. 

Packer realized at once the importance of the discovery, 
but said nothing of that to Kohler. Instead he made an 
appointment to meet him in twenty days at Sunflower 
Springs with an outfit that would last for three or four 
months in the mountains. 

Kohler continued alone to Needles and, being greatly in 
need of immediate cash, obtained a job on the Santa Fe. He 
was sent to a little station at Amboy where considerable 
lumber for building and some mining timber was being 
shipped. His work was helping to unload it, and on the 
third day several heavy timbers toppled over and killed him 
almost instantly. When Packer, who waited several days 
over the appointed time at the Sunflower Springs, did not 
hear from Kohler, he hurried to Needles and there heard the 
news of the accident. Without waiting for further word, 
he started out with his outfit, and for nearly ten years he 
has been going through the two ranges in which the arch is 
located without being able to find it. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


9o 


THE PEG-LEG MINE 

Just about twelve years ago the great Southwest was 
awakened by the possibility of the relocation of the widely 
known Peg-leg Mine. The Southern Pacific Railroad was 
doing considerable work through Imperial Valley, a valley 
which five years previously was one of the hottest and most 
forsaken deserts on the American Continent, but which, with 
the coming of water through the extensive irrigation system 
of the Government, has grown to be one of the brightest 
garden spots of the world. 

The only human beings who ever ventured into the valley 
before the bringing-in of water were the prospectors and 
then the engineers and their crews of hardy linemen, rodmen 
and assistants who were surveying roads, lateral canals for 
subsequent irrigation, and similar work. A large crew was 
stationed between Ogleby and Salton, rebuilding much of 
the track. They were near a watering-place called Glamis 
when the incident occurred which sent many of them scurry¬ 
ing from their work into the mountain ranges in a vain effort 
to find the wonderful property that they knew must exist. 

While driving the work along slowly under the brazen sun 
and amid the occasional sand-clouds stirred up by a slight 
breeze from the mountains, a figure appeared in the distance, 
just a vague, traceable figure, slowly and wearily pushing 
along through the clogging sands. As it approached, it re¬ 
solved itself into a wandering Indian squaw, apparently half 
dead from lack of water, who, without going near the work¬ 
men, passed on to the tank and there started to drink from 
the small open trough. 


96 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


Thinking to assist her when she seemed about to drop into 
a heap from nothing more than the exhaustion of her toil¬ 
some journey, several of the men started in her direction. 
She saw them coming. With an effort she arose and made 
off with all speed down the track in the opposite direction. 

She was followed for a distance until she turned off into 
the desert again, and, having no great interest in a single 
squaw, the men returned. On arriving at the water-tank 
they discovered an old piece of blanket securely tied in a 
knot. On opening it they found a lot of black pieces of 
metal, which under a knife revealed pure gold of darkest 
hue. They were nuggets, dozens of them, varying in size 
from smaller than a dime to the size of an English walnut, 
and all of them black. 

Hastily the men tried to follow the squaw, but by this time 
she had disappeared in the same range of mountains to the 
north from which she had been seen to emerge. When the 
finders of the gold had an opportunity of having the metal 
assayed and valued, they were brought to a realization of 
the worth of the discovery. The little pack had contained 
more than two thousand dollars’ worth of property. 

Such a find could not help starting a search and creating 
talk, and it was but a short time before a number of old 
miners were on the scene. They knew the value of the black 
gold and also that in this section, buried far from observa¬ 
tion or generally overlooked by prospectors who had been 
through the ranges before, lay the old Peg-leg Mine with 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


its fabled wealth. There was a stampede from the camp, 
which did not last long on account of the hardships the 
searchers had to face. 

Only in the northwestern part of the range is there any 
living water, the Salvation Springs. Other portions of the 
range contain huge natural tanks in the mountains, which at 
that time were discovered in all but one or two instances to 
be dried up. As a result, only a few hardy prospectors were 
steady in their search, which had its original inception in 
1853 when “Peg-leg” Smith wandered into Mohave with 
nearly ten thousand dollar’s worth of black nuggets in his 
possession. 

The day he pulled into the mining-camp with its three 
saloons and two stores, his lips were cracked and black, his 
tongue parched and swollen, and his hands almost bursting 
from the pressure of blood caused by long tramping. His 
mule had saved his life by half dragging him to the camp, 
which he would never have located alone. 

For several days he lay abed, gripping the saddle-bags 
which had been brought into his rooms in one of the shacks 
that served as saloon and hotel. When he recovered con¬ 
sciousness and health, he opened the sadle-bags and satisfied 
the curiosity of the hundred or so prospectors who were 
working in the vicinity. 

What they saw startled them. It was black gold. Nug¬ 
gets, hundreds of them, as black as coal on the outside, but 
pure dull gold within. “Where did you get it?” was the 


98 


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question, and Smith tried to tell them, after securing from 
each of them a promise to share in the wealth should they 
find it. 

According to his story, he had been living with the Yuma 
and the Cocopah Indians along the Colorado River for sev¬ 
eral years. Away from the river the land resolved itself 
into the driest, most desolate region imaginable, a region 
they seldom ventured into because of their dislike for their 
God of Fury, who overwhelmed them and buried them be¬ 
neath the swirling sand-dunes when they sought the black 
pebbles. 

They told stories of great treasures of yellow metal, but 
never ventured after it themselves. Smith, who had lost a 
leg while in an encounter with the Indians in crossing the 
plains, hoarded up all the stories, and after securing all in¬ 
formation possible he decided on a trip to San Francisco to 
obtain a partner in his work. At that time the desert was 
not mapped, and it was a really hazardous undertaking for 
any man to attempt. 

In this desolate region Smith lost his bearings. The fierce 
yellow sun, the dancing, jiggling heat-waves, the dust- 
flurries confused his direction. He finally climbed upon a 
black butte that stood near by and, arriving at its summit, 
probably fifteen hundred feet in the air, he attempted to 
locate his whereabouts. 

“When I reached the top,” he told some of his friends, 
“I saw just a short distance away another butte of exactly 


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90 


the same height and type as the one on which I stood. It 
was connected with a low saddle, and the twin buttes were 
isolated from the main range. Finally I decided on the way 
I was to continue and started back down the hill to my mule, 
which had remained at the foot of the incline. 

“I had tied the animal to a boulder in order to prevent it 
from breaking away and carrying off the only water-supply 
available for perhaps a week or more. Rather restless, the 
mule had stamped about and kicked up some good-sized 
pebbles that showed a strange glint where the hoofs h^d 
struck. Picking one of the black stones up, I pulled out my 
pocket-knife, scratched its surface and found that it was 
gold.” 

It was a repetition of the old Oriental fable of the stranded 
Arab on the desert, who came across a sack of pearls when 
he sought figs and water. Smith was running short of food 
and water and could take only a few pounds on the already 
overcrowded mule, and these he placed in his saddle-bags, 
proceeding then on his route. 

After he had recovered sufficiently, he started out to re¬ 
locate his valuable property. Others had preceded him, and 
a number followed close along, hoping to be with him in the 
find. For days he wandered about, but the twin buttes had 
disappeared as if by the magic of an Aladdin’s lamp. He 
tried time and again, as did dozens of others, to locate the 
immensely wealthy find, a place, as he explained, where 
black gold lay strewn for blocks over the ground and looked 
like mere chunks of rock and lava pebbles. 


100 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


He never succeeded in his quest. Nor has any one else. 
There have been many mints located in the district of the 
desert—the Mesquite Placer Diggings in the central part of 
Imperial County, which have produced thousands and thou¬ 
sands of dollars, the Ogleby Diggings, the Salvation Springs 
Diggings, but not the mine of black volcanic-like gold. There 
are many black buttes in the country, but they, too, have 
failed to give up the secret of Peg-leg’s lost properties. 

THE LOST PAPUAN PLACER DIGGINGS 

Papuan, last chief of a small tribe of Papago Indians, who 
lived during the early part of the last century in the moun¬ 
tain fastnesses of western Arizona, discovered one of the 
richest placer diggings in existence. In the terrific struggle 
with the Apaches and other hostile tribes the Papagoes had 
been entirely wiped out; Papuan was the last man of the 
tribe to escape the hostile arrows, pitfalls and traps that 
were laid for him. Only one tribe had treated his people 
favorably, the Mohave Indians. 

When all hope for his people was gone, he wandered into 
the tribal territory of the Mohaves, which was located in 
what at this time is Yuma County on the Colorado River. 
There he took up with an old squaw, who seemed almost 
friendless among her people, and the two were married with 
all the tribal ceremonial. 

The squaw was not unappreciative. She wanted to show 
her devotion to her lord and master, and frequently the two 
Indians wandered away from the remainder of the tribe for 



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101 


days at a time. Whenever they returned they brought with 
them nuggets, all they could carry, and distributed them 
among the other Indians and bartered with the few white 
traders who happened that way. 

One of them, Bill McCoy, after whom the McCoy Range of 
mountains in Riverside County, California, is named, was 
running a store at Ehrenberg, a Government post; in Cali¬ 
fornia during 1864 and for two years later. To him came 
Papuan with his hoard of gold, so much that McCoy could 
scarcely believe his eyes. The Indian bought lavishly, 
traded for anything and everything that his heart desired, 
and in less than two years had contributed to McCoy about 
seventy-five thousand dollars’ worth of gold nuggets. 

The trader tried every possible ingratiating method to 
learn the secret of his mine. He wheedled, coaxed, threat¬ 
ened, made big offers of beads, jewels and horses, but never 
could learn Papuan’s secret. He sent his men to follow 
him, but they were never successful in keeping the trail. The 
Indian eluded them. 

In 1886 the Apaches carried their enmity to the Mohave 
Indians and by their indignities stirred them finally to bat¬ 
tle. Papuan, a valiant warrior in his day, joined the people 
that had made him one of their own. He was killed, but in 
the rout of the Mohaves, his wife managed to escape. 

The story of the gold had been wafted abroad, and about 
fifteen years ago a middle-aged German of stalwart build, 
IT. W. Hartman, arrived in Ehrenberg and began collecting 


] 02 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


the data pertaining to the placer diggings. He discovered 
that Papuan’s squaw was still living and his plan at once 
embraced her. He sought out the decimated tribe and 
found the squaw, now a.withered old hag, and began to work 
upon her sympathy. 

He cared for her like a son, looked after her every want 
and all the time tried to secure from her the location of the 
rich treasure-trove. For months she refused to divulge her 
secret, and Hartman had just about decided that all his 
work was vain, when one day she told him to prepare for a 
journey into the mountains after the treasure. 

At the same time she was stricken with a severe cold. The 
cold became rapidly worse and finally evolved itself into 
pneumonia. Her death was only a matter of hours. Hart¬ 
man did not lose all hope, however, for she informed him of 
one other who knew the secret hiding of the placer, one 
Chinkinnow, who to this day is still alive. 

On him Hartman lavished his attention. Chinkinnow was 
afraid of the spirits of those who had gone before. He de¬ 
murred, refused, then half promised, and one fair day he 
started out with the German to show what he had seen as 
the adopted son of Papuan on two or three visits to the 
diggings. He struck out for the southeast end of the 
Papuan Range of mountains, came to within a few miles, 
then contrived to destroy the greater portion of the water- 
supply, and the trip had to be abandoned to hasten back to 
the Colorado, twenty miles away, to secure the needed fluid. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


103 


Then Chinkinnow refused absolutely to go again. Hart¬ 
man went, but failed to find the diggings in the canyons and 
gulches that in late Summer are filled with torrents which 
tear through the range with perfect fury. In a few weeks 
they again are as dry as the desert itself. Many times the 
shriveled old Indian has accepted large fees to take pros¬ 
pectors to the place. His cunning old soul has always found 
a way to get out of accomplishing the feat. Always, how¬ 
ever, as though by instinct, he has started in the same direc¬ 
tion. 

Yet prospectors have not failed entirely for their trouble. 
They have realized that because of the heavy wash each year 
the workings of old Papuan and his squaw might be entirely 
obliterated with the continual addition of rocks and boulders 
and granite to the surface of the gulch beds. With dry 
washers, which have just recently been invented, they have 
managed to make their trips pay dividends on account of 
the finding of other gold. 

That the placer is in the mountains and not on the desert 
they feel certain, because of the natural concentration which 
occurs in a gulch or canyon. Chinkinnow has refused to 
give even this information, but at Ehrenberg and at Blythe, 
the two towns which he visits, he is always under surveil¬ 
lance with the hope that he may accidentally give away the 
secret he carries with him. 

THE LOST BREYFOGGLE 

Ash-Meadow Charley, bad man of the Piute Indian tribe, 
is probably more to blame than any other living agency for 


104 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


the loss of a quartz mine that, from specimens assayed, 
showed value of one hundred thousand dollars a ton, for it 
was he who with an ax hit James Breyfoggle in the head and 
mentally deranged him for the remainder of his life, in 
periods of a few days and, as he grew older, almost con¬ 
tinually. 

Breyfoggle in 1863 had found his way into Austin, Nevada, 
and from there had proceeded in a leisurely manner south¬ 
ward into the Funeral Range of mountains, which border 
upon that desolate and unalterable waste of heat and mys¬ 
tery, Death Valley. In his wanderings he remained well 
within the boundaries of Nye County, so far as research has 
been able to ascertain. 

One evening, while making ready for his camp, a terrific 
storm, the kind that comes but once or twice a year in that 
section of the world, broke in all its windy fury, and Brey¬ 
foggle camped on the side of an abrupt peak and beneath a 
hanging ledge which afforded protection from the storm. 
He hobbled his horse (some men claim it was a burro, but 
from more reliable sources it is generally conceded a horse) 
and turned him loose to browse on the sparse vegetation to 
be found there. 

The storm had little effect in keeping him awake, and with 
the rise of the sun he was ready to go on. Lo and behold! 
his horse, however, had disappeared. For an hour or more 
he trailed it up and down, finding its broken hobble, and 
returning eventually to his camp. After a bite of food, he 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


105 


climbed to the opposite side of the peak beneath which he 
had rested and, gaining an eminence of considerable extent, 
he pulled out his field-glasses for a survey of the general 
profile of the country. 

Tired with his arduous exertions, he leaned against a ledge 
and quietly gazed upon the surrounding country, locating on 
his right a heavily timbered mountain and on his left a broad 
valley which showed considerable vegetation, very unusual 
for that part of the mountains. 

His horse failed to come within his range of vision, and in 
half despair he turned and started to obtain a position a 
trifle higher up on the ledge. His hand struck a loose rock 
that, turning, glinted brightly in the sun which was just 
edging its way from among the dark gray clouds. He caught 
his breath. He looked a second time. Sure enough, it was 
gold, real gold, and not the metal that is its counterpart and 
has oft been designated “fools’ gold.” 

The dull sheen came not alone from the single rock that 
he held in his hand. It cropped out from the surrounding 
rock as far as he could reach to brush away the particles of 
crumbling quartz. It was everywhere, and he broke off 
large pieces of the ore in his delirium of discovery. While 
it lasted he reveled in his new-found riches, sat among the 
hard rock pillows that spelled millions and continued his 
examination of the ground. 

After hours he came to his senses and also to a realization 
that his horse was still straying. With a start he collected 


106 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


all of the ore he could carry and continued to trail through 
the few available mountain washes passing sun-blackened, 
weather-beaten cliffs, into dust-gray sage and the debris of 
countless ages until he located a lone willow. 

His horse had been forgotten in the increasing thirst which 
had made itself a factor by gnawing at his stomach, demand¬ 
ing relief. The willow stood for water, and hastily he stum¬ 
bled over the corroding, gold-filled ledges to find himself 
finally before a spring that bubbled out of this forsaken 
ravine. Then, spurred again by the thoughts of his animal, 
the food that he had left behind and the desire to get out 
and announce his discovery to the world, he wandered off 
into the twilight and, soon, the night, which comes suddenly 
in that portion of the world. 

For days—how many Breyfoggle was never able to com¬ 
pute—he wandered about almost aimlessly, stumbling at last 
more dead than alive, into Stump Springs, which are located 
twenty-two miles from Sandy and nine miles from Manse, 
all situated in Nye County. It was there that he encoun¬ 
tered the band of wandering Piute Indians. Their love for 
the white invader was small, and although not of the same 
fighting blood as the Apache or the Sioux, they fell upon the 
half-crazed miner, who in all probability stirred their ani¬ 
mosity by some untoward act, and Ash-Meadow Charley, so 
named for the fact that he had resided for a time in after 
years at Ash Meadows in Nevada, struck him with an ax. 

The blow was a glancing one, inflicting a severe wound, 
and it would have been followed to its termination by others 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


107 


had not one of the other Indians interceded. They packed 
Breyfoggle on one of their horses, and when near Las Vegas 
started him for that place, where he landed in a half-dead 
condition, but neverethless clinging closely to his ore. In 
several weeks he was physically able to be sent to Austin, 
Nevada, where his family resided. 

After more months of rest he at intervals had periods that 
were lucid, and in these he told of all his hardships and suf¬ 
ferings. His discovery was sent to an assayer’s office and 
the production, according to the samples, would have run 
over one hundred thousand dollars to the ton, so rich was 
it in gold. Had it not been for the ore, little credence would 
have been given his tale because of the deranged condition 
of his brain at most times. 

Nor did he stop with telling of the discovery. Time and 
again he set out with his horse and pack-saddles into the 
territory which he thought held the riches that would put 
him beyond the haziest dreams of Midas. He enlisted his 
friends and even went so far as to locate Ash-Meadow Char¬ 
ley, who lived in after years in the Pahrump Valley, to assist 
him in the search, but all in vain. 

About twelve miles south of Daylight Springs, where the 
eastern edge of the Funeral Range approaches Death Valley, 
there is a place named “Breyfoggle’s Despair,” for the rea¬ 
son that here, in the middle of the sun-parched desert, are 
five of his trails, meeting in a star-like center and leading 
off into the solitudes of the surrounding country without 


108 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


reaching the ultimate goal. On his deathbed he declared 
that whoever would locate his discovery would have suf¬ 
ficient to enrich all of his friends and pay off the national 
debt. 

Whether or not the Breyfoggle discovery continues among 
the great lost mines of the country is a doubtful question 
with many mining men who are thoroughly familiar with all 
its details and who have been among the many to try to 
rediscover the wealthy ledges. Breyfoggle’s continued en- 
deaver to rediscover his property, and his story of the won¬ 
derful find, proved the incendiary torch to the imaginations 
of many prospectors who were fired with the desire to locate 
the hidden wealth. 

Forty years of search has not dimmed the tale in its tell¬ 
ing. It is recounted over and over, and continues to draw 
the daring prospector into that region of little water and 
hard struggles. Nor have these other prospectors always 
looked in vain, for other valuable ore bodies have been 
located by the search. 

One of these, the “Johnnie Mine,” is frequently pointed 
out as the property which Breyfoggle found because of its 
general topographical outlook. Located in the southwestern 
portion of Nye County, it stands on a high ledge which has 
shown wonderful specimens of gold from the surface crop¬ 
pings. On the west of the mine is located the valley of much 
vegetation, Ash Meadows, where grow the scrub oak, the 
mesquite and many smaller plants of their own accord. On 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


109 


the other side stands Charleston Mountain, the only tim¬ 
bered peak in all the range, which probably is the timbered 
mountain of Breyfoggle’s description. 

Lenses of very high grade ore, running more than a third 
pure gold, have been found on the surface, and it is possible 
that the prospector, in his haste to find his horse, locate 
water and return to a place of plentiful food, made only a 
superficial examination of the property, striking several of 
the rich lenses and proceeding no farther in his haste to get 
back to civilization and outfit properly for the real work of 
obtaining his princely wealth. 

THE LOST DUTCH-OVEN MINE 

When the railroads built their transcontinental systems, 
one of their greatest difficulties lay in the supply of water 
for the men who were working on the projects. Great 
wagon-trains were frequently essential to bring sufficient 
of the supply to make work for a week at a time possible. 
Even after the completion of the roads there was difficulty 
in obtaining water for the purpose of supplying the engines 
or the little stations necessary wherever there was a siding. 

In order to secure water in abundance, the Santa Fe Rail¬ 
road had ordered a tunnel bored in the Clipper range, 
located in San Bernardino County from eight to ten miles 
northwest of Danby, the station to which it was to be piped 
if discovered in a large quantity. This all happened within 
a score of years. The man who volunteered for the work, 
a competent mining man, who was well acquainted with the 


110 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


sinking of shafts and the boring of tunnels, was Thomas 
Schofield of Los Angeles. 

Tiring of work one day in early June of 1894, he started 
on a prospecting trip, something which he did whenever he 
felt in need of relaxation. He wandered into one of the 
canyons close at hand and discovered there a spring. What 
to him was more surprising and even startling was the trail 
that led up the canyon, stopping at the watering-place. 

The trail, at times very indistinct because of the solid 
rock formation, led over three or four small hills, the hog¬ 
back of two ranges and then into another canyon. This he 
followed until it ended in a blank wall and he realized that 
the trail had been lost. Going back a short distance he 
discovered it winding up the side of the hill. It led to two 
immense rocks, rivaling the towers of an old English castle. 
They seemed to form the portal to the wealth beyond, and 
nature had set them so closely together that they allowed 
just sufficient passageway to permit a burro well packed 
to enter. 

And just beyond the portal stood an isolated rock. There 
beside the black boulder of enormous size stood the shreds 
of what had been a camp. The wooden upright supports 
were still standing, and draped from them, floating in the 
breeze, were the shreds of what had been a tent. Brush had 
been carefully piled up around the sides. Inside there was a 
bench of boughs, still covered with a blanket, which was, 
like the tent covering, dilapidated and ragged. The stillness 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


111 


of the place and the fact that man had been making his 
habitation there struck Schofield like a blow from a fist. 

A pile of railroad ties, a number of rusty old axes which 
had been used as wedges for splitting the ties for lagging, 
a few other mining tools and some badly decomposed food 
still lay about the place, indicating very sudden abandon¬ 
ment of the camp by its owner. The most conspicuous of 
all things about the place was an old-fashioned, heavily 
rusted Dutch oven, the largest Schofield had ever seen and 
a trifle over two feet in diameter. So oppressive was the 
place and so nerve-racking the immediate strain, that he 
continued on the trail which led away from the camp. 

Just a short distance away he came to a shaft where con¬ 
siderable work had been done. It was sunk upon a series 
of small stringers that ran parallel to one another for a long 
distance and at intervals of about six inches. He counted 
twelve of these peculiar formations in the rock and they 
were of almost solid gold! He tested them, “horning” 
great strings of coarse gold. 

The surrounding ore was of an indigo-blue quartz forma¬ 
tion, and “to me the stringers, passing through the dark 
porphyry, appeared a bed of roses of golden hues hidden in 
the depths of a giant bed of violets,” said Schofield in telling 
of his discovery. “I traced these lines of high-grade ore for 
a distance of nearly three thousand feet, and found them 
widening and enlarging as they went. They interested me 


112 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


so that I failed to notice for hours that the day was fast 
waning and that I would be forced to remain there over¬ 
night. 

“The mystery, the awe and even the fear of that night I 
shall never forget. Was I in the haunt of a robber crew 
who had found wealth far richer than could be obtained from 
their nefarious trade in the city? Had the owners been 
cruelly murdered and their wealth carried off by some one 
else? Was I the victim of some strange phantasmagoria, or 
would I waken to find all the wealth and the adventure of 
the day a dream? These and countless other suggestions 
coursed through my throbbing brain, and I slept little that 
night. 

“In the morning I explored the shaft at the first light of 
breaking sun above the jagged sky-line of broken peaks. I 
found that the shaft had been sunk to possibly seventy or 
eighty feet, that it was equipped with a windlass, rope and 
bucket and that it had been well timbered all the way to 
the bottom. Outside I discovered a large pile of ore, indi¬ 
cative of the fact that little or none of the product of the 
mine had ever been carried away. 

“After gathering a number of fine samples and a large 
quantity of the horned gold, I went back to the camp and 
there again I was attracted by the Dutch oven. Something 
seemed to draw me toward it. It contained gold! Half of 
it was full of the product and there was I unable to cart it 
away. All marks of those who resided there were of such 


THE MINER ’S GUIDE 


113 


an old stamp that I never thought whether it would be right 
or wrong. The idea of possession of so much wealth nearly 
overwhelmed me, and after grasping some of it I started 
back to the camp by the tunnel, planning a trip to Los 
Angeles to see whether it was really gold that I had found.” 

And when Schofield had his ore and his metal tested he 
found that it was the real article and that he had made 
himself richer by several hundred dollars with just the small 
amount he had been able to lug out on his person. It fired 
him with the desire to return at once and obtain all of the 
treasure if the right owners had not returned. But he has 
never been able to get back to the Dutch oven! 

In coming back from the mine he had paid little heed to 
the general direction taken. He had followed the trail 
blindly on his way up and again on his return journey. 
Consequently after a number of weeks, when he returned 
with a partner to look for the treasure and found that some 
terrific rains and even a waterspout had been ahead of him, 
his plans became hazy. The water had obliterated all signs 
of a trail and his knowledge of getting back was gone with 
it. He had even forgotten the general direction, and in the 
years that have followed he has never been able to discover 
the towers of rock, the solitary mass of granite where the 
camp stood, or the mouth of the tunnel and the ore-heap 
that lay before it. 

He told friends and they in turn told others of the won¬ 
derful Dutch oven. In the annals of mining, no one has ever 


114 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


heard of a wonderfully rich discovery in the Clipper Range. 
There are no mining men who speak of the place knowingly 
as having worked it or worked with those who had worked 
it. The camp remains a mystery, and were it not for the 
wealth that Schofield brought back with him, his story might 
never have gained the credence that it has. He is still liv¬ 
ing, and tells with great enthusiasm the manner of his dis¬ 
covery, but puts on the soft pedal when it comes to his loss. 
The gold would have meant so much in the worldly goods 
and his family’s comforts at this time. 

LOST TUB PLACER 

Men will sacrifice love, life, virtue and kindred things if 
there is a great opportunity presented for the accumulation 
of sudden wealth. Strange alliances, stories of murder, long 
legal fights and bitterest enmity have grown up in the South¬ 
west as adjuncts to the continued hunt for treasure. Among 
the strange stories that are more widely known is that which 
has to do with a lost placer of great riches. 

It finds its origin in the early eighties, either 1883 or 1884, 
when a white man, a lone prospector, wandered into the 
camp of the Piute Indians at Piute Bend on the Nevada side 
of the Colorado River. The bend lay only a few miles above 
Fort Mohave, and it is there that Jamison, which is generally 
given as the man’s name, gathered his first inklings of the 
storied wealth accumulated by several members of the tribe. 

They were said to know of several great gold deposits in 
the desert and mountain country continguous to their place 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


115 


of living, and from these they frequently brought to Fort 
Mohave splendid specimens of nuggets and gold-dust. This 
gold they traded for a half or third of its actual value, buy¬ 
ing the baubles and the gaudy apparel so dear to the heart 
of the red man. It also led occasionally to serious trouble, 
attempts of unscrupuous whites to obtain their secrets, some¬ 
times even by force, usually by some chicanery. 

Jamison took a course which brought him in direct and 
continued contact with all members of the tribe. He mar¬ 
ried one of the squaws, and after a year or two of living with 
the Indians gained many of their secrets. To his brother- 
in-law he was indebted for the discovery of an immensely 
rich placer. To reach it at all seasons of the year was ap¬ 
parently impossible. 

“We shall wait until the snow falls and covers all the 
land,” said the red brother to Jamison. 

They waited for two years for such a time to come, snow 
not being a usual thing in that portion of the country every 
year. And when it came, the Indian took his adopted tribes¬ 
man for a long journey, to a place of three peaks and a place 
where no water was obtainable, save through melting the 
snow, and there they gathered from beneath the white cloak 
much gravel, and carried it back to the camp of the Indians 
in three days. 

Feeling assured, then, of the wealth he was to gather, 
Jamison wrote an old Eastern friend whose name has been 
lost. It is said to have been Fields. He told Fields all about 


116 


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the wonderful gravel, and so excited his desire for riches 
that within a few months Fields had arrived at Fort Mohave. 
Jamison left the Indians with the excuse that he had to look 
after particular business in California. 

Then with Fields he went to Homer, a station on the Santa 
Fe Railroad in San Bernardino County, California. There 
they purchased a span of good mules with some of the gold 
that Jamison had saved from his first trip, and they loaded 
an old buckboard with a barrel of water and a few pro¬ 
visions and started out, driving south into Homer Wash. 
From all reports they probably traveled forty miles that day 
and night, arriving at the diggings early the next morning. 

“There we climbed a mesa,” said Fields, telling of the 
discovery in after years. “And on top of this proceeded 
with our work, which merely consisted in scraping the 
gravel in heaps and panning it in a tub which Jamison had 
brought along for the purpose. The water which had been 
left in the barrel was used in the tub. The gravel was 
nearly half gold, so rich that it nearly stunned us. We be¬ 
came careless in our work, picking off only the coarse gold 
and the nuggets, and dumped the residue of fine gold and 
dust into the tub. It was far too much work to pan it 
clean.” 

Want of water, the bugaboo that has menaced every pros¬ 
pector at one time or another in the Southwest, came upon 
them at nightfall when they were forced to give to the two 
mules the water that had been used for panning. It was 


THE MINEK’S GUIDE 


117 


less than enough to quench their thirst, and in half panic the 
two miners cached their tub, half full of dust, and their gold 
pan in a small cave which they had discovered in one of the 
little canyons leading off the mesa. 

Then came their retreat, as ignominious as any that ever 
befell an army. With all their wealth they were forced to 
run. A panic seemed to overtake them and they jogged 
their mules through the desert night, trying to get to Homer 
before the break of day and the heat that came with it in 
that Summer period. With coming of dawn they found 
themselves in a sad plight. They had lost the trail entirely, 
were in a country new to them, had not a drop of water and 
scarcely a handful of food. 

Then came the struggle with death, the terrific strain to 
retain the balance of their mentality against the worriment 
of a thousand of imps of heat and of wavering lights and 
shadows that dance in the shimmery waving light of the 
desert and drive to distraction and ultimate madness. All 
day long they forced their mules, stopping only long enough 
to catch their breath and renew their fast-waning strength. 

They had to fight the mules onward, the animals balking 
and becoming more obdurate at every step. This sapped 
strength, and when chill night came, with its horrors of 
ghostly visions, they continued to struggle on, resting only 
two or three hours and then moving forward to meet the 
coming dawn. 

With breaking light came hope. Way off in the distance 


118 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


they discerned the guidepost that has led to many a salva¬ 
tion in the desert wastes: telegraph poles strung at regular 
intervals. To reach them and the railroad tracks they 
marked as their aim. Through three hours of tortuous 
work, walking instead of trying to ride behind the worn-out 
mules, they struggled on, their tongues lolling black from 
out their mouths, their throats burned to a cinder crispness, 
their eyes bulging in continued effort and strain. 

And reaching the railroad, they could discern, just a short 
distance to the right, a few straggling buildings, some little 
outpost of civilization, with promise of water if nothing 
more. And this they reached eventually, pulling their mules 
behind them. They were found by an old miner who hap¬ 
pened on to the broad wooden platform of the only bar in 
Blake during the noon siesta of the town. They were more 
dead than alive, and it took several hours of hard work to 
bring them to. For two days they were out of their minds. 

Their first thought on coming to was their gold. Had 
they lost it ? Had it been stolen ? They directed search for 
it in the wagon, and there it lay in a large canvas sack, un¬ 
touched by the men who had cared for the mules. When it 
was weighed, the men found themselves in possession of 
fifteen thousand dollars for a single day’s work! The story 
of their find made Blake a deserted village in a few hours. 
A stampede for gold was on. For days and weeks it con¬ 
tinued, but never successfully. Their trail had been obliter¬ 
ated in the winds that continually sway the sand from dune 
to dune and obliterate ceaselessly through ages. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


139 


It was a week before Jamison and Fields could travel. 
They packed up at the end of that time and in their swaying 
buckboard they drove to Needles, where Fields with his 
share of the gold started for the East to secure capital for 
development. Jamison turned his mules back to Homer 
then, and on back to the Piute Bend to his Indians, arriving 
there in a delirium caused by a relapse into fever acquired 
on the trip from the diggings. His squaw nursed him ten¬ 
derly and medicine-men of the tribe gave him herbs, but 
Jamison died. 

Fields came back when he heard of this. He had a chicken 
heart induced by past experiences, and nothing would induce 
him to start out alone on quest of the wealth that lay hidden 
in the desert near the three peaks. 

He sent other men for him, giving them a map of the coun¬ 
try as he had conceived it, but they all failed in the reloca¬ 
tion of the treasure. Eventually he returned home, but for 
several years continued to write to mining men, offering 
them half of his interest if they could, with the aid of his 
map, discover the dry placer. 

From one of the mining men it has been learned that the 
location of three peaks has not been so very difficult. Ap¬ 
parently they lie forty miles or so south of Homer, at the 
northern end of the Turtle Range. Because of the impossi¬ 
bility of obtaining water, more than two or three days’ so¬ 
journ in the district has never been possible, and this has 
precluded a thorough examination of the territory. Some- 


120 


THE MINER ’S GUIDE 


where within the region lies the immensely rich deposit. Gold 
has been found in all of the district in varying quantities. 
The Lost Tub and its contents and the mesa with its wealth 
are still awaiting the lucky prospector. 

THE GOLER PLACER DIGGINGS 

Three men rode leisurely out of the Panamint Range of 
mountains at the edge of that famous sink of mystery, Death 
Valley, and on across country toward San Bernardino, their 
destination. They were all on good horses, had ample packs, 
and ten-gallon water canteens. They rode through the heat 
of the day, their horses kicking up the dust of the desert 
and leaving behind a continuous hazy vapor which always 
distinguishes anything of life that moves in the desert 
wastes. 

During the heat of the day they stopped to camp in the 
shade of their horses, which were watered and fed. Soon 
they started on. This time there was not the same certainty, 
the same equanimity, among them, and a quarrel arose as to 
the proper direction to take. They quarreled all that after¬ 
noon, and finding their water-supply practically all gone on 
the following morning, their words almost resulted in blows. 
They separated. 

One of them, Frank Goler, struck out alone in an easterly 
direction while the other two went south. Where these two 
went, whatever happened to them or even the memory of 
their names, has been added to the many mysteries of that 
desert country. It was the last time they appeared alive, 
and in all probability succumbed to thirst and heat. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


121 


By noon of the second day, Goler had arrived at a series 
of low hills that lay directly in his path. He crossed them, 
and on the farther side discovered a canyon into which he 
plunged without the least fear and with renewed hope of 
salvation. It contained abundant vegetation, and what was 
more than all the rest, it carried in its deepest embrace a 
little mountain stream. 

Arriving at its banks, Goler, nearly delirious from lack 
of water, gave his horse its freedom and dropped to the 
edge of the stream and began lapping up the cool, bright 
water. And while he drank, the rays of the sun, penetrating 
the foliage of an overhanging cottonwood, glinted upon 
something on the bottom of the stream—something yellow 
just beyond the touch of his lips. 

It was a nugget weighing several ounces. There were 
others near it, and Goler, bewildered at his good fortune, 
pulled forth three of the pieces of gold and then stopped to 
think of food, for he had not taken nourishment for more 
than a day. The thought of how much longer he would be 
forced to travel without sustenance brought fear into his 
vitals. The gold suddenly lost its charm, his find dwindled 
into a nothingness as compared with his life and he was 
seized by a sudden panic to get away. 

He tucked the nuggets into the bosom of his shirt, caught 
his horse, mounted, and then proceeded with all possible 
speed down the canyon, taking little time even to make 
proper survey of the location of the treasure. Finally, after 


122 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


several hours of rough riding he came out upon a plain. Just 
ahead of him he saw what apparently had been the bed of 
a big body of water. 

It was all dried out and lay in a straight easterly line with 
Mount San Antonio, or Mount Baldy, as it is more generally 
known in the Southwest. The snow-capped peak gave Goler 
encouragement, and also indicated the proper direction to 
the little mining town at the foot of the famous Arrowhead, 
where the Indians found relief from many ills in the waters 
that purled from several springs. 

It required another day for him to reach this place, and 
when he did he was completely exhausted and his horse fear¬ 
fully jaded and ready to collapse. The nuggets had worn 
holes in his garments and rubbed through the skin, causing 
serious sore places because of the fact that the alkali of the 
desert and fiber from his garments had worked into the 
wounds. 

Three weeks elapsed before he had fully recovered, and 
then he showed the treasures that he had collected. 

‘ 1 Why, there is enough of this stuff to load several wagons 
where I found it, and I am going to bring in a load in less 
than a month,” he assured some of his friends. 

He at once set out to fit up a wagon with broad-rimmed 
wheels, light canvas top and a team of sturdy horses. 

The day he set out, a large gathering watched him off 
and several prospectors followed, hoping to be in on the 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


123 


wealth that he had discovered. In a few days they returned, 
disgusted with the fact that Goler apparently did not know 
whither he was traveling. In a month he came back tired 
out and disgruntled because he had been unable to relocate 
the same chain of hills and the hidden waters. Six different 
times he went in search of his wealth and always returned 
with the same story—one of reverses and loss, until finally 
he had spent all of the money he had accumulated in a life¬ 
time and had to give up the quest. 

It is generally conceded that the Goler discovery has since 
been found. His first location was in 1886. In 1891 an old 
and odd character, Hen Moss, who made his home in San 
Bernardino, started out on one of his regular prospecting 
trips. One of his burros wandered away from the other 
three, and Moss started to follow the lost animal with his 
entire train. It led the motley aggregation of life toward 
some hills in the desert which had never been carefully ex¬ 
amined, because they were supposedly dry and afforded 
little opportunity for prospecting for any length of time. 

The wandering burro found a canyon and in it water, and 
in this way led Moss to the discovery of a gold deposit. In 
a few hours he panned out several ounces of dust with his 
horn spoon and also found two or three fair-sized nuggets. 
The discovery went to his head. He failed to place his 
locating stakes and hurried back to San Bernardino to cele¬ 
brate his good fortune. 

For several days a very intoxicated old man swayed the 
entire community with his lavish expenditure of gold-dust 


124 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


and nuggets. When it had been consumed in this manner 
he had time to sober up and come to a realization of his folly. 

With borrowed capital he fitted up a second time, and 
when he left town he might have been mistaken at a distance 
for the Pied Piper of Hamelin. More than half the male 
inhabitants of San Bernardino were at his back, all equipped 
for a long journey with pack train or on horse. 

Moss tried to throw them off his trail, doubled on them, 
returned to San Bernardino, but all to no avail. 

“Guess I might as well take you along,” he said one day 
when his patience had been frazzled to a rag. 

This time he proceeded directly to the distant range in 
the open desert. And when he neared the canyon, those who 
were following him realized the nearness of the end of their 
journey. Moss spurred his horse ahead and left his pack 
train to care for itself. There were better horses in that 
group, and race as he might, his hand unsteady and his 
saddle not so well filled as others, he was overtaken and 
passed. 

The stampeded prospectors, filled with lust for gold, had 
reached their goal, and old Hen Moss was one of the last to 
arrive on the ground of his discovery. He staked what 
proved to be the poorest claim of all the eighty that were 
staked out. The men all figured that they had come to the 
old Goler discovery, and thereore they so named the district, 
which was at once organized. The Goler District is located 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


125 


in what is now Kern County, California, about twenty-eight 
miles north of Mojave, a little mining town on the Southern 
Pacific. 

The creek proved one of the richest ever found in Cali¬ 
fornia. Several hundred thousand dollars were taken from 
a comparatively small area. In places the wealth was phe¬ 
nomenal, nuggets worth more than a thousand dollars each 
having been picked up with such frequency that they ceased 
to be special objects of interest. There were not enough of 
them, however, to fill a wagon. Goler was mistaken in a 
degree because of the fact that much of the creek-bed was 
filled with a very peculiar rock, one similar to all appear¬ 
ances to gold, but w T hich lacked its weight and turned out 
to be the well-known fools’ gold which has tricked many an 
amateur miner. 

Moss did not lose courage, however. Seeing the great 
riches developed by those about him, he became disgusted 
with his little finds and finally packed up and set out. He 
discovered in the same range Red Rock Canyon, sometimes 
called “Bonanza Gulch” because of the gold it contained. 

For a time he had acquired forethought, and he located 
the entire gulch before ever giving an inkling of what he 
had done. He went over the entire length of gulch, about 
three thousand feet, and amassed a fortune, for it produced 
an ounce of gold to every linear foot of the entire distance. 
His newly acquired wealth did him no good, as has been 
often related in the case of miners who have come upon their 
wealth suddenly: he squandered it all. 


126 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


When he returned to San Bernardino or to Mojave, he 
delighted in bewildering the denizens of the place by his 
wonderful show of wealth. He would fill a quart pickle 
bottle with gold, and after a few drinks would throw his 
nuggets through the windows of some saloon merely to 
watch the people scramble. 

He died only four or five years ago, a pauper who had 
lived in his declining years on the charity of his friends. 

THE LOST GUN-SIGHT MINE 

This perhaps has led to as many deaths as all of the other 
lost mining properties together, for the reason that the Lost 
Gun-sight Mines has been located by its original discoverer 
somewhere in Death Valley, the dread sink of waterless waste 
that has been the basis of many a blood-curdling yarn of 
fabulous discoveries that have never been made public and 
of strange disappearances through a period of forty years. 

This discovery, unlike most of the other lost mine dis¬ 
coveries, had silver of almost virgin purity as the basis of 
its worth instead of gold. Nor was the discovery a little 
ledge, a few veins or massive nuggets. It was a solid moun¬ 
tain of black sulphurets of silver located somewhere in the 
southern portion of the Panamint Range, and had its origin 
in the tale brought to the Southern California towns by a 
band of immigrants who had nearly lost their lives from 
lack of water in the valley of perpetual despair. 

One of their number, Joseph Bennett, was the first to reach 
the confines of that mysterious waste which stretches in 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


127 


length for one hundred and twenty-eight miles, and at its 
widest portion for twenty-seven miles, void of nearly every 
semblance of vegetation and containing but two or three 
springs af water. 

Bennett was more adventurous than others of the party 
of immigrants and acted as trail-blazer. He wandered some¬ 
times a day in advance of the others on the trip westward. 
And one day he wandered so far ahead that his water gave 
out and he was unable to retrace his steps. Nearly famished, 
he chased from one phantom spring to another, finally com¬ 
ing to a real one, which since that time has been known as 
Bennett’s Hole and which has proved the salvation of many 
a prospector. 

From there, after a day’s rest, Bennett made his way back 
into the range that came to the edge of the desert and circled 
with them some twenty miles to the westward, finding 
eventually a good spring of water. There were a few trees, 
live-oaks and willows, surrounding the spring, and, suffering 
still from the days of his ceaseless chase for water, he re¬ 
mained there a week. It was on one of these days that he 
happened to notice the metallic quality of some of the rock 
that surrounded him. 

He made closer investigation, and although lacking all 
sense of the prospector and with no mining experience to 
tell him right, he realized that he had stumbled upon a won¬ 
derful deposit of silver. The croppings came from a num¬ 
ber of ledges and were all black with the corrosion of some 


128 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


sulphate. He broke off a number of large chunks of the 
metal and then started again on his journey to a place of 
civilization. 

That journey, like many others of similar character, has 
gone down in history as one of fearful hardships, despair of 
ever arriving at a goal, and, during the final days of strug¬ 
gle, despair of ever finding water or food again. He was 
discovered by another prospector and brought into Needles 
more dead than alive, but still clinging to the silver that he 
had found. 

For weeks he was insane, and when he finally came back 
to his senses he had lost all reckoning of distance traversed 
or the exact locality of the immense silver deposit. When 
he had sufficiently recovered he started out to relocate the 
property. He failed a second and third time in his endeavor. 

On the last two trips he made he carried with him a gun 
on which he placed his faith for unerring aim. He pur¬ 
chased the gun, an old rifle, from a miner who was down and 
out, and the weapon having no sight, he had the blacksmith 
fashion one from the silver ore which he carried. With this 
he wandered through mountains and valley after valley, 
hoping to be able to shoot into the ledge which contained the 
original metal of the sight. He failed, as did his friends 
who attempted to follow his directions. 

A record of a score of deaths has been laid to this dis¬ 
covery because of the men who have started out for it and 
have never returned, leaving perhaps their bones to dry out 
and blow away on the parched sands of Death Valley. 


THE MINER’S GUIDE 


129 


LOST MINE OF ARIZONA 

In the last century, one of the most notable mines of what 
is now Arizona was the one called the Planchas de Plata, the 
“planks of silver.’’ Its exact position is unknown now, 
though the neighborhood in which it was found is plainly 
indicated by the old records and letters. Don Manuel Retes, 
now Captatin of the port of Mazatlan, thus spoke of this 
mine, in an essay on the mineral resources of Northern 
Sonora: 

“This mineral deposit, situated Siy 2 ° north, long. 111%° 
west of Greenwich, is described by the Jesuits as having 
been discoverd by a Yaqui Indian, towards the commence¬ 
ment of the last century, distant from four to five leagues 
from the line of Arizona; about fifteen from the town of 
Tumacaicori, the nearest settlement; about twenty-five from 
the Presidio of Santa Cruz; nearly ninety from Ures, and 
about one hundred and thirty from Guaymas. The silver 
was discovered in sheets of different size, from which the 
name of Planchas de Plata, ‘sheets of silver,’ originated. 
They were found almost on the surface, perfectly pure, and 
without adhering to any foreign substance; in a flexible 
state, capable of receiving impressions, and only hardening 
on being exposed to the atmosphere. The region which pro¬ 
duces the same is an earth of the color of, and very similar 
to, ashes, which extends in visible leads more or less wide, 
and in parts subdivided in veins, over all the hills and moun¬ 
tains adjoining the main deposit. Among the sheets ex¬ 
tracted, two are worth mentioning—especially one which on 


130 


THE MINER'S GUIDE 


aeount of its almost fabulous size, weighing one hundred and 
forty-nine arrobas, it was found necessary to employ the 
heat of four forges at the same time to reduce to a smaller 
bulk—the other weighed twenty-one arrobas, though accord¬ 
ing to other accounts it was much larger. The news of such 
immense lumps having been found, without the investment 
of much labor, could not fail to convoke a great number of 
people to that region, not only from the neighboring settle¬ 
ments, but also from the most distant provinces. The 
amount of silver extracted within a very short period, 
amounted to 400 arrobas, or five tons.” 

Another mine very rich in silver was the Arizona; the 
position of which is also lost. It was in search of this mine 
that Count Raousset de Boulbon made his celebrated expedi¬ 
tion into Sonora, whither he went, at first, in good faith and 
with peaceable intentions, though after he had been de¬ 
frauded and atacked, he turned filibuster. There are per¬ 
sons who are ready to assert that the exact position of the 
Arizona mine is known; but the best informed say it is not. 


J. Nelson Nevius 

Mining Engineer 
and Geologist 

Open to engagements for 
examination of proper¬ 
ties and to direct the 
systematic development 
of mines and mineral 
deposits. 

0 [ 5 ] 0 

809 SOUTH LOS ROBLES AVENUE 

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 

TELEPHONE, FAIR OAKS 1179 




WILSON’S MINING 
LAWS 

OF THE 

United States, Arizona, California, Colorado, 
Nevada, Oregon and Utah, with Forms, 
Annotated. 

SPECIAL CHAPTER ON OIL CLAIMS 

Designed for general use in office and mining 
camp. Always up to date and with good 
index. 

Price , $1.50 

WILSON’S 

Corporation Laws 

OF 

Arizona, California and Nevada, with Forms. 

A useful and ready book for Lawyers, Secre¬ 
taries of Corporations and Business Men. 

Price , Cloth $2.50; Paper $1.50 

UP TO DATE 

BOTH COMPILED BY 

CALVERT WILSON, Attorney at Law 

WILCOX BUILDING, LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 








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